Gojira (2014 New Retelling)
by Kyero Di' Nelma
Summary: From the depths of the Ocean awakens a slumbering God. To the world above he rises to battle an ancient enemy for dominion of this world. Humankind can only watch and pray as this towering colossus wages war on a scale unseen since time began. This God has no sympathy, no regret, and no mercy. His name is... Gojira.
1. Introduction

**A Head's Up**

Hey guys!

So, I went back to reread my Godzilla 2014 retelling and I came to a few conclusions:

**1)** I was much too cautious with it.

The reason for this was because I was going off of memory from watching it only two or three times, and though I have a good memory for things I really enjoy there were numerous details which I either omitted by accident or on purpose which I should have included for various other reasons.

**2)** It was tame in my treatment of Godzilla and the way humans viewed and responded to him.

Retelling the 2014 story was no excuse for being so tame and laid back. Human reaction to something like Godzilla and the MUTO's would be much, much more aggressive and proactive on the part of the military. Also, Godzilla and the MUTO's reaction to the humans and what they do would be different as well. I erred on the side of caution a bit too much, as stated in the previous detail, and I stayed a bit too close to the original movie which at times was not a wise decision on my part.

—

So to remedy this situation I will be re-making the retelling, but thanks to a very special source I have everything I need to include everything which I couldn't before including sections of dialogue, the ability to further set up and explain in more depth and detail the environments and atmospheres of numerous sequences throughout the story, and explain much more accurately emotions that were in play and how they related each character to one other and their effect on others around them.

For those who see this for the first time, since this is a retelling and not a duplicate of the original 2014 movie you will notice right away the differences between my retelling and the movie. Certain characters will live and die differently than in the movie, the monsters will act very differently, and overall the pacing of my retelling will be different as well. The story itself is largely unchanged, but each sequence will be longer and more action packed since as I writer I'm not limited by video time constraints.

As a final piece of happy information, there will be absolutely no doubt as to Godzilla being an anti-hero as opposed to an otherwise indifferent hero that was depicted in the movie.

So I hope you guys look forward to it and enjoy! I know some will wonder why I'm doing it, but trust me, from the moment I put up the first chapter, I can assure you that any doubts you have about _another_ retelling will be put to rest as you'll notice an immediate difference in writing style and overall atmosphere.

I should have the first chapter up sometime tomorrow afternoon, so sit tight and I wish you guys all the best as I get ready to tell the 2014 story for the final time as I believe it should have been presented were movie time constraints not an issue. It will be longer, more emotional, more action packed, and more brutal on both humanity and the monsters than my original retelling, so I hope you guys enjoy!

I know I will!


	2. Prologue - Trying To Kill It

_**Prologue: Trying To Kill "It"**_

"_The origin of species by means of natural selection is a method nature has used for eons to define who lives and who dies on this planet. Only be selecting the strongest and most fit to survive does nature succeed in maintaining balance between her children of Earth. In this way, I can conclude that we as a species may well be next on the list to die should we not find a way to turn back from our self destructive course. Until then, I can only hope that __he__ does not see fit to prove to us that the inevitable imbalance in nature to come will be our fault…"_

_ - Dr. _Ishiro Serizawa

—

_Date: February 14, 1954_

—

"Sir, we have the target on sonar again," called First Mate Westen to Captain Adam Stenz.

"What's his bearing?" Asked the Captain.

"Bearing zero, six, zero degrees sir."

"All right. Relay the bearing to HQ and set a course for zero, six, zero. We're sticking to this thing no matter what."

"Yes, sir!"

The United States Destroyer vessel changed course to follow the mysterious object through the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Ever since its first appearance near the edge of Japan's territorial waters in late January after the launching of USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, the United States military had been trying to keep tabs on it. They had spent the last few months tracking it, losing it, and finding it again as it seemed to be criss-crossing back and forth through this region of the Pacific not far from the Marshall Islands. Now they had it on sonar again, and the captain was not about to lose it now. The president had recently given them approval to destroy it by any means necessary so long as damage was kept to a minimum near populated areas, and the Marshall Islands applied.

The call went out for testing nuclear weapons on these islands some years ago shortly after the end of World War II, and testing had already begun since. However, further testing was still planned through for the next few years as well. But now the tests were no longer going to be just tests. The US military knew this would be a prime location and a perfect reason for getting rid of this thing while making it look like business as usual. Over the next few weeks leading up to the detonation of the first warhead, it was discovered that the object on sonar was attracted to the device which was going to be used to kill it. Why? They had no idea, but it was perfect. They could use the bomb to lure the creature out to the Marshall Islands, specifically the Bikini Atoll, and detonate once it was in sight.

—

_Date: March 1, 1954_

—

((_A bit of information for those Godzilla trivia buffs out there who pride themselves on knowing everything about Godzilla across all of his movies: I have discovered two new points of proof, not evidence, **proof,** that the "Castle Bravo" nuclear detonation in the opening credit sequence of the movie was incorrectly displayed and is the result of poor research and poor writing... You trivia buffs are going to love this:_

_Mistake #1: Time of day._

_Correction: Castle Bravo was detonated at 6:45pm on March 1, 1954. That day, the sun set at 5:40pm, meaning the blast took place one full hour after sundown. I know because I have done my research. *Hint Hint Borenstein, ya might want to get on that buddy* This means, obviously, that Castle Bravo was detonated at night. The blast in the movie was clearly during the day, and there is no arguing that fact. It's full sunlight above Godzilla when the blast goes off and when we see the blast itself as it shoots that wave of dust at us to wipe the screen white and give us the title of 'Godzilla' shortly after._

_Mistake #2: Mushroom Cloud Height and Width._

_Correction: The mushroom cloud used in the movie is FAR TOO SMALL to be that of Castle Bravo. At 15 Megatons, Castle Bravo's mushroom cloud became over half a mile wide and released a 4 mile wide fireball that was visible from 250 miles away, all in the course of less than a single second! The mushroom cloud reached over 47,000 feet (just under nine miles high) at its peak, and reached a full diameter of over 7 miles in approximately one minute's time._

_If it was half a mile wide in less than a second, how wide do you imagine it would have been after the **several seconds** that passed before we as viewers saw the cloud and concussive wave which made the screen go white and see the title of "Godzilla"?_

_If that were Castle Bravo, by the time the mushroom cloud had had time to fully form as it did in that part of the opening sequence, the width of the mushroom cloud alone would have filled the screen almost from end to end with how close the camera was in terms of relative distance and at that particular flat angle._

_Sorry Godzilla fans, but Max Borenstein done screwed it up! At least you can brag to your friends about this mad knowledge!_))

"Sir, it's heading this way."

"Good. Then stand by," called the overseer of the nuclear detonation.

The Bikini Atoll had been cleared for miles around. A single nuclear warhead painted with a general likeness of the creature it was aimed at today as well as a red circle with a line through it waited patiently for its detonation. The crew on board the boat to observe sat silently and prepared their protective goggles against the extreme amounts of light the warhead would give off. All nuclear warheads gave off light brighter than the sun due to the fusion and fission occurring in the air around the warhead. The temperatures had the potential to reach over ten million degrees celsius, and the energy released, measured in kilotons, was roughly the equivalent to an equal number of thousands of tons of TNT.

Today's nuclear warhead was estimated to produce between eighteen and twenty-one kilotons, or eighteen thousand to twenty-one thousand tons of TNT. Such an extreme amount of energy and heat would surely dispose of this creature in an instant. Nothing on this earth could survive such an explosion at such close range. All the scientists involved had assured the US military that it would work, and the risk of damage to the surrounding area would remain minimal and the islanders could return given a few years time to let the effects settle. Taking science at its word, the military had approved of the detonation and were now waiting patiently around the island in their ships a few miles out to avoid the initial impact and force generated by the blast.

The silence was deafening as everyone waited with breaths held for the creature to appear.

It was a creature unlike any the world had seen before. It was impossibly large, and it was known to be aggressive. After the launch of USS Nautilus, another nuclear submarine was secretly launched in hopes of destroying it. It only took one torpedo impact for the creature to turn on the sub and attack. All contact with the sub and crew were lost that day, and the remains of the vessel were never found. It was a tragic day for the US military and the families of those on board the vessel. But today would be different. Today, they were going to kill it.

The uncomfortable silence was broken when one individual, a scientist who had been exposed to the effects of the Hiroshima bomb dropped in 1945, spoke up.

"Are you sure this will work?" He asked.

"Don't worry doctor Serizawa, this will work. The bomb's blast force alone will be enough to destroy this creature. You've nothing to worry about," assured the overseer of the project.

Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, the lead scientist of a recently founded organization known as MONARCH, was not convinced. He sat back down, watching the island through his binoculars as he let out a sigh of frustration and shook his head. In his mind he knew this wouldn't work. This creature, from the moment it was discovered in late January, had proven to be impervious to all other weapons used against it. Event he nuclear submarine's strongest torpedoes did little more than annoy it. Even if this was a nuclear bomb, he had calculated something that others had either forgotten about the effect of nuclear weapon blast force, or never knew about in the first place.

Finally, all of their waiting was rewarded. The guttural sound of the creature's growl began to reverberate through the air and the boat beneath them. But what struck them immediately was that the sound came from behind them. All of the men on the boat, including Dr. Serizawa, stood up and looked behind them towards the water. A massive mound was heading their way, and as they continued to observe it they saw several rows of large dorsal spines break the surface like knives. For a moment, they were all too awe struck to speak or move until at last one of the soldiers stationed on the ship as a security guard yelled for everyone to brace.

They all grabbed hold of the side of the boat and waited anxiously as the large spines grew closer and closer. Before impact, the spines began disappearing until they were gone completely. A wave rocked the boat gently, raising it up approximately fifteen feet or so before settling it back down gently. Whatever this creature was, it had not been blind to the presence of the boat and it didn't seem to be in an aggressive mood at present. Otherwise, why avoid the boat? It was not like the creature really cared about it or needed to avoid it. The boat was an afterthought. Dr. Serizawa ran to the other side of the boat looking back at the island as the spines broke the surface again and the creature headed towards the island with the nuclear warhead.

"He'll be there in about five minutes or so I'd say, given his speed." One scientist said quietly.

Everyone else remained silent, taking their seats and preparing for the blast. The creature grew smaller and smaller in their field of view until they needed their binoculars to see it in the distance. Keeping careful eye on the sonar device on board their small ship, they watched the creature approach the island at around thirty knots.

"… Start the countdown," called the overseer.

"Yes, sir!"

One of the soldiers picked up his telephone and dialed in all of the other vessels.

"We're beginning the countdown now," he said.

"Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven… Six," he began.

Dr. Serizawa's jaw tightened as part of him didn't want the creature to be destroyed. He had a strong feeling it wouldn't be, but at the same time this was a nuclear warhead. Calculating its yield was not an exact science yet, so anything could happen.

"Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Fire!"

The overseer pressed a button, and the nuclear weapon was detonated right as the creature began to surface a few hundred meters off shore.

The light was instantaneous, and all members of the ships had to divert their eyes even with their protective goggles on. The time ticked by so slowly it was almost as if it had been brought to a complete standstill. All sound after the blast had reached them went silent, and the air began to heat dramatically to the point where they instantly began to sweat. The next thing to happen was the light dying down at last to where they could look at the devastation caused by the explosion. The giant mushroom cloud was in the air and the smoke was still billowing out in all directions. They were around seven to eight miles away, and were only receiving a bit of smoke akin to mildly thick fog as a result.

The boat was put in reverse until it reached a point where the smoke didn't affect them any longer, which was not until it was a further two miles away. They couldn't see anything through the smoke, nor were they hoping to. The electronics had been taken out by the EMP effect given off during the explosion, but returned not too long after and they communicated with the other ships asking if everyone was all right and whether or not they could see anything. However the story was the same all around the island. Everyone was all right, but nobody could see anything. Dr. Serizawa continued to keep watch towards the cloud and was breathing steadily. His jaw had relaxed and his lips were slightly pursed in sadness.

As the leading scientist in MONARCH, he had been hoping to study this creature alive and in tact. To observe its behavior, catalogue its feeding habits, observe possible mating rituals (which were likely only residual instincts, as there was no way another one of these creatures existed), and perhaps even find a way to communicate with it. Given its size and the shape of its skull, the brain cavity was bound to be large enough to host a brain capable of complex thought. This creature had proven already that it was not a single minded hunter like its reptilian brethren, as evident by it going out of its way to avoid their boat and by not attacking everything it saw out of raw aggression.

Sadly, it seemed now that science would never understand this creature.

Everyone on board Serizawa's boat was celebrating their victory. Science had trumped nature and the massive beast was no more. Some were even singing old sailor songs about sea monsters as a way to mock nature's helplessness in the face of modern science and technology. Serizawa was the only one not celebrating, watching in silence as he felt the boat tremble slightly beneath his feet. He looked down towards the water and saw the faintest ripple coming towards them and hitting the base of the boat. He instantly took off his goggles and grabbed his binoculars, looking out towards the island with his heart racing.

_Could it be him?_ He thought to himself.

However, there was nothing. No motion, no sound, no signs of life anywhere. Just a rapidly vanishing cloud of smoke. He began to put down his binoculars when something inside him persuaded him to look again. As he brought the binoculars up, another of the scientists with him came over.

"Hey, Serizawa. You need to lighten up! This is a huge victory for science and human kind! Enjoy the celebration!" He urged.

Serizawa wouldn't budge.

He continued watching the smoke clearing away from the base of the island as something came into view. A dark mass floating lifelessly at the edge of the shore. A few seconds later and the smoke cleared just enough for Serizawa to see the spines, and he dropped the binoculars.

"Take the boat to the island!" He yelled.

The celebrating stopped dead in its tracks, and they all looked at him like he was insane.

"I said take the boat in! I can see the creature's body, and it's largely in tact!"

"Impossible!" Came a few shouts as they all grabbed their binoculars and looked towards the island.

The uncomfortable silence returned as they all slowly dropped the binoculars in awe and wonder before begrudgingly setting course for the island. About eight minutes of cruising later, and they had arrived within range to see the creature's body. It floated lifelessly, but as Serizawa had said it was in tact. So much so that everyone could hardly contain their amazement and surprise that it was so. But surely the creature was dead, right? Nothing could survive the sheer force of such a blast at close range.

Upon closer inspection, the creature's body may have been in tact, but it was also badly burned. The energy released from the blast had ripped a lot of skin off and blood trickled out of innumerable small wounds along its body. Two of the spines looked stripped of skin entirely, and were bone white. Many on board the ship began to celebrate again, cheering for the grievous state the creature was in and praying out loud that it was dead. If it had found a way to survive, it would not be happy upon awakening. Such horrific burns would sting like nothing else upon contact with the salt water of the ocean, and having the flesh stripped from those two larger spines wouldn't feel too good either.

But on cue, the creature's body stirred.

Everyone went dead silent and watched. At an agonizingly slow rate, the creature's body rolled over onto its stomach. Only about half of it was above the surface of the water, with its head, neck, arms, legs, and stomach hidden beneath the water. Everyone hoped that it was just a residual nerve impulse causing it to roll onto its stomach due to its natural center of mass. But those hopes were quickly dashed when a faint growl was heard from beneath the water. Bubbles formed above its head and its body began to move again. Slowly but surely the creature curled its legs beneath itself and forced its way up onto its hands and knees. Its head rose out of the water, revealing horrible burns around its forehead and cheeks as well as the front of its upper and lower jaw.

The creature's eyes had been spared from destruction, which was nothing short of a miracle given how soft the material in the eye was. But it was obvious that it was in extreme pain as it almost fell back onto its stomach from its arms shaking as it held up its weight. Its eyes closed tightly and it let out a soft groan of agony as blood trickled down from its face to the ocean water below staining it red. Serizawa's eyes began to well with tears of both happiness and sadness. He was happy the creature survived, but he was horrified at how badly injured it was. However, the creature sat still for several minutes after that point remaining entirely motionless. The tightly furrowed brow on the creature softened as time went on until at last it looked as if it was completely relaxed.

It opened its eyes and made its way to its feet, groaning and growling on its way until it stood up completely.

The creature shook its head to shake off the shock of taking such a blast at such close range. Everyone on board the ship watched in horror as its shoulders rose slightly and it then leaned forward releasing a roar towards the sky. The sound was instantly deafening and caused several members on the boat to lose their hearing the moment it came forth. Serizawa was one of the… "lucky" few to prevent that from happening, but he wished that he had lost his hearing as this sound was outright painful. As the roar came to an end, the throbbing in his head remained and it felt like his brain had begun to swell and pound against the sides of his skull with every pulse of blood from his heart.

However, Serizawa's happiness at the creature surviving this most horrific incident as it waded out into the ocean trumped his pain temporarily. He stood up and watched with satisfaction as the creature lumbered out into the ocean and disappeared beneath the waves. The entire boat stood in stunned silence. Some were bleeding from the ears while others looked around as their bodies began adjusting to life without sound. One of the soldiers approached Dr. Serizawa, tugging at his sleeve.

"How the Hell did that thing survive that?" He asked loudly.

Serizawa looked out to the water.

"It's the inverse cube law. The blast wave itself deposits energy in the material it passes through, and any energy that doesn't make it through the object causes damage. The greater the amount of matter in the path of the energy released by the explosion, the smaller the effect. The energy which passed through his body caused light internal damage such as the headache it must be feeling right now, but the majority of the energy got caught on the surface of its skin where it took the form of the burns we saw. The creature's size and mass was its salvation this day," Serizawa said, nodding his head in satisfaction.

The soldier hadn't heard a word he said, but he had read his lips and was more than depressed at the monster's survival. Others who hadn't lost their hearing began throwing arguments and accusations back and forth to each other as the once celebratory crew was thrown into chaos in the face of defeat. Mother Nature had spoken, and the human race had lost. This creature had defied all logic and reason to survive a direct blast from a nuclear warhead, and it had done so despite all of the data pointing to the opposite result.

Serizawa, in the meantime, watched the oceans knowing full well that the human race had not seen the last of this creature.


	3. Chapter 1 - What Is It?

_**Chapter 1: What Is It?**_

_Date: August 2, 1999_

—

The green pastures and forests of the Philippines soared passed the glass windows of the MONRCH helicopter. Seated within, gazing out at the world around him was a Japanese gentleman wearing a small straw hat to protect himself from the heat of the day outside and sunglasses to protect his eyes from the blistering sun. He wore a white long sleeved shirt with a deep olive green vest and matching pants. In his hand was an old watch given to him by his father long ago before his father's passing due to radiation sickness. He toyed with the watch almost unconsciously using his thumb to trace the outline of the insignia on the front.

A caucasian woman was seated beside him, watching him in silence. She understood the watches significance as the man's fingers curled around it. She looked outside as they began to approach the mine, and outside her window she saw thousands of workers toiling away carrying heavy bags of dirt and rock, climbing long ladders, and carrying water buckets in the blistering heat.

She and the man next to her both pondered what awaited them and this new "big discovery" which lay ahead in a collapsed mine. The incident had been reported not more than two days ago, and their organization was the first to catch wind of it and investigate the occurrence.

"Drs., we're about to land. Please ensure your safety belts are both fastened until we bring the chopper to a complete stop." Asked the pilot.

Both did as instructed, and buckled down to await landing.

As the MONARCH chopper approached, a middle aged man with thinning red hair watched the chopper. He wore a faded tan business suit and a blue shirt and tie. In his hand he held a briefcase full of documents and data regarding the incident.

The chopper touched down, and once it stood still the two doctors inside opened the doors and left the chopper. Keeping their heads ducked and their hands on their hats so they wouldn't blow away, they spotted the man in business attire and jogged over towards him. In greeting, the man outstretched his hand as the Japanese gentleman approached first.

"Dr Serizawa?" He asked.

Serizawa nodded and shook his hand.

"Jerry Boyd! I'm just warning you it's a mess. Just a total mess. MONARCH sent me in this morning. Took a quick look around and I felt that we needed you."

He turned to the female doctor.

"Oh, and you must be Dr. Graham?" He asked.

She nodded, shaking his hand as he extended it to her.

After the exchange, Graham took a few minutes to take in the surroundings.

The mine itself was massive, and the amount of Earth they'd moved already was quite staggering. The chopper had landed next to a tall pile of crushed rock nearly eighteen feet high. As she looked around she saw that all of the miners were thin, dehydrated, and seemed almost regretful to be alive. On their faces were expressions of either indifference, pain, or anger. Some carried all three, and as their eyes met hers she looked away and turned to follow the two men as they continued towards the heart of the mine ahead.

"They picked out a radiation pocket out here last month, and they got excited thinking they had a uranium deposit. They started stacking up the heavy machinery and… well the… the valley floor collapsed into a cavern below."

Serizawa looked ahead towards a set of railing ahead and was able to see just over the edge of it as the sight of a massive hole in the ground came into view.

"It just… fell away. Just gone." Boyd continued.

The scene before them was a gruesome one.

A massive hole hundreds of feet wide and who knew how deep lay before them. On the edge of the monstrous cavern were sets of massive machinery crushed and mangled from the sudden collapse. Millions of dollars worth of Earth moving machines had been annihilated in an instant, and all around the hole miners were scrambling to salvage what they could while the rest of it was abandoned until specialists were brought in who could remove it.

"Best guess is forty miners went down with it," Boyd finished.

Serizawa looked over the edge and down into the cavern, taking off his sunglasses. Graham walked up beside him, looking down below as well and let out a soft sigh of shock and anguish.

Less than an hour later, both doctors were dressed in protective suits to protect them from radiation and had descended down into the cavern with a team of scientists to investigate the inner workings of this cavern. In the darkness, their flashlights were their only guide. The sounds of their breathing was their only comfort as they continued deeper into the darkness. Finally, one of the head scientists walked a short distance ahead as they came to a fork in the path and turned to them.

"This way," he said, gesturing to the left path.

"When they first discovered this pocket the radiation levels were only… half as strong. It's almost as if contact with the outside air started… catalyzing something."

They all continued down the path until they beheld something amazing. Serizawa walked forward, his eyes wide in shock and his flashlight held up to guide his way as he approached something massive.

Standing before him partially buried in the rocks was a massive bone protruding upwards towards the ceiling. It was curved like a rib, but far too big to be any kind of known species of animal. It was nearly fourteen feet high and perfectly preserved almost as if it had put there yesterday. The sheer cleanliness of it despite its unnatural resting place in a subterranean cavern inspired a true sense of wonder and bewilderment in the hearts of Serizawa and his female colleague.

"Some kind of fossils right?" The head scientist asked.

"I've been digging holes for thirty years and I've never seen anything like it," he continued.

The head scientist walked passed Serizawa and flipped a switch on a small control panel.

Slowly, a long stream of lights came on illuminating the cavern and the giant skeleton as it snaked its way towards the back. The massive skeleton was a marvel, but Serizawa seemed to be interested in something else. Watching the skeleton put a new expression of questioning on his face as his brows furrowed slightly and his flashlight came down about halfway.

"Oh my god, is it possible?" Graham asked.

"Is it him?" she asked again.

Serizawa only stood there gazing at the skeleton.

"No," he finally answered.

"This is much older," he continued.

Graham looked back to the skeleton in amazement as a call came from the rear of the chamber. It was one of the local scientists speaking in another language, and the head scientist called to Serizawa.

"Hey guys, you gotta see this!" He called.

They all continued towards the back of the skeleton until they finally came upon a fascinating though horrifying sight. Their Geiger counters led them to some kind of strange pod over ten feet long and nearly seven feet ice hanging from one of the bones of the massive extinct creature. It was almost shaped like a seed pod, but it was fleshy and had an almost slimy looking surface.

"What is it?" Graham asked.

Serizawa shook his head.

"Some kind of egg? A dormant spore?"

Serizawa's flashlight began trailing over a section of what the spore was hanging from.

"The bones are fossilized but this, this… formation seems perfectly preserved."

Serizawa's light landed on what appeared to be a second spore, but this one was different.

"This one looks broken, like something came out of it." The head scientist said as Serizawa continued to analyze the formation.

It wasn't but a short moment later that they all heard the sound of helicopter blades overhead and they all looked to each other wondering what on Earth was going on? How could they hear helicopter blades in here? But the answer came rather quickly when they noticed that there was a beam of sunlight shining down just around the corner of another part of the wall ahead. Serizawa walked over to it and squinted his eyes against the light and raised his hand to shield himself from it while his eyes adjusted.

Outside, the MONARCH helicopter they arrived in traced a circle around a massive area of broken and upturned Earth with a massive drag trail leading towards the ocean. The hole Serizawa and the others were looking out of grew wider and wider as it approached the surface before finally giving way to what the chopper was seeing. What could have caused this and what had escaped into the sea was anyone's guess, but whatever the case was they knew it was not going to be good.

Graham lightly tapped Serizawa's arm as he turned to look at her.

"Sensei, what do we do?" She asked.

Serizawa looked back towards the hole staring back at them and his lips tightened.

"We report back on what we have found," he responded.

"But what about whatever it was that escaped from the spore? What do we tell them about it?"

Serizawa started walking back towards the entrance to the cavern, looking back over his shoulder to her.

"We tell them the truth. We tell them that something broke out of that spore and is now loose on the world. That's as far as our responsibility goes in this matter now."

She nodded to him, wondering if headquarters would accept their report.

It was pretty far fetched, after all. Two spores inside a giant skeleton with one broken open leading outside to a massive trail that went to the ocean nearby? It was like a children's monster book come to life. Still, MONARCH had seen stranger things and… much bigger things, so this was likely not going to be too much of a stretch for them. Plus they had pictures and recorded data from the mine which proved their story and experience true.

Still, had it not been for _him_, Graham wondered if anyone would ever believe such a tale as this one.

They made their way back to the outside where they met up with their chopper again and began the long ride back to MONARCH headquarters to report their findings. Along the way, they exchanged information and theories surrounding the massive pods and where the escapee could have gone to. Having just hatched, it must have been hungry and looking for food as most baby animals do. But there was no way of knowing exactly what this creature was doing, much less what a creature this size could feed on. The two doctors got their first good look at the opening of the cavern where the creature broke loose as the chopper came around to show them.

"My god…" Graham whispered.

Serizawa nodded, taking one last picture for the road home.


	4. Chapter 2 - Family Tragedy

_**Chapter 2: Family Tragedy**_

_Date: September 12, 1999_

_Location: Janjira, Japan_

—

A small, quiet, peaceful town built beneath the shadow of a large mountain and raised on the success of the nuclear power plant at the city's edge. Within this quiet and peaceful town, a single house located on the North end. It was a traditional Japanese home, but the residents were from North America.

Joe Brody, a nuclear physicist and engineer lived there with his wife Sandra and their young son, Ford. They had moved here from America for Joe's work, as it would have been too much of a strain for the family to live so far apart. The change in scenery, as well as culture and language had been a rather large adjustment process for the family. Tensions had arisen, but thankfully it had all worked itself out in the end. Joe quickly learned all he needed of the language to communicate effectively with the locals, and that helped with work and he was able to help teach his wife and son the basics as well.

This morning, as the sun just barely crept over the horizon, young Ford stirred from his slumber walking to the center of his room where a sign he made for his father sat on the floor. It was a "Happy Birthday" sign, and Ford had toiled long and hard to make it for his father on this special day. But as he knelt down to pick up the sign, the phone rang in the other room.

"I'll get it, it's probably for me." Joe announced.

Ford continued to drag his sign across the floor as he made his way to his father's office until he heard his father answer the phone.

"Moshi, moshi," Joe said to whomever was on the phone with him.

"No, Takashi… No Takashi! Just listen to me for a second!" Joe ordered.

Ford walked slowly towards his father's office, hiding just outside the door as he listened to the conversation continue.

"I'm asking for the meeting because if I have to shut the reactor down, you're not gonna want to read about it in a memo…"

Ford peeked around the edge, watching his father converse with Takashi on the phone.

"Because I've been following these tremors since they started in the Philippines and now they're in our own backyard… No, no, no, no, no, no. Hayato says I need to go through _you_ about this."

Ford watched and looked back at his sign, dismayed that his dad woke up before he could surprise him with it.

"Look, I'm just, I'm just trying to follow the protocols that were set for us by the company? That's all. That's my job."

As his father's conversation continued in the background, Ford's mother Sandra walked around the corner fixing her jacket cuff.

"He's awake?" Ford asked in a whisper.

"Oh I know. He got up early," his mother whispered back.

"What are we gonna do?" Ford asked, holding up his sign.

Sandra looked tot he sign and then to Ford, her heart starting to break at her son's obvious sadness.

"Get dressed, I'll figure it out." She reassured him.

"Okay? Go ahead," she continued, shooing Ford along.

Ford got dressed and ate his breakfast before high tailing it outside following his parents. As he raced down the drive way, his father was still on the phone.

"Later dad!" Ford called.

Joe waved quickly to him, continuing his conversation.

"With all due respect Takashi, and honor…" he said, trying to open the car door but with no response.

He looked too his wife and she showed him the keys.

"Respect and honor, with all of that. I'm an engineer and I don't like unexplained frequency patterns happening near a plant where I'm responsible. I need a meeting, make it happen!"

Sandra got into the car first after unlocking it, sitting down and putting her bags in the back seat as Joe made his way in as well.

"No!… Hai… Kyou…"

"I'll see you then," came Takashi's answer on the phone.

"Arigatou!" Joe said, finally hanging up the phone.

He put the phone down and checked for his wallet and everything else as Sandra waved to Ford as he boarded the bus.

She turned to Joe, helping him clip on his ID tag.

"He made you a sign," she said.

"Huh?" Joe asked.

"Your birthday sign," she continued.

Joe suddenly realized what she was talking about and he looked out towards Ford on the bus and gently shook his head.

"He worked so hard," Sandra said.

"Oh god…" Joe whispered in self disappointment.

At that moment the bus took off,, with Ford's face just barely visible through the dark windows.

"I'm gonna come in early, I'll take the car and pick him up and we can get a proper cake. Okay?" She asked.

Joe nodded, but put his hand on his wife's shoulder.

"Listen. I need to know that it's not the sensors. Okay? I can't be calling this meeting and look like the American maniac. So when we get there, don't even bother coming up just grab a team and go down to level five."

Sandra shook her head.

"You're not a maniac… I' mean you are, just not about this." She said, putting her seat belt on at the same time as Joe.

Joe shook his head, half distracted.

"There must be something we're not thinking of," he said.

Sandra turned to him.

"Happy birthday!" She said happily.

Joe's face lit up in surprise.

"W-wha?"

"Is it?"

"Yes! Yes it is!" Sandra said.

"Oh I forgot all about it!" Joe replied, as the two began to share a kiss.

Well… several kisses.

"Happy birthday!" She said again.

"Thank you!"

"Ooh, I should have birthdays more often," Joe joked.

The two shared a few laughs as they drove towards the plant ahead. Three massive columns of steam pouring out into the skies were the marker, and one could never lose their way if they just looked for that white smoke.

Inside the plant, Joe met with Takashi and the others.

"What is this?" Joe asked.

"Seismic anomaly," replied the worker.

"This graph is minutes. Uh "x" is minutes, not days. This is now!"

One of Joe's American colleagues was with them, and he was beginning to become confused.

"Uh wait, uh hold on? Seismic activity? Seismic like an earthquake? You talking about earthquakes?" he asked.

"No, earthquakes are random, jagged. This is consistent. Increasing," Joe replied.

"This is a pattern," he continued.

Meanwhile, Sandra and her team were prepping for their venture into the depths of the plant.

"All right, let's make this quick." She said, putting on her protective head gear and face mask.

The sealed doors opened and she and her team entered the long corridor and began their long trek to check the sensors within the plant.

Back in the control room, Joe pushed the doors open and immediately started in with Takashi.

"Takashi, what the hell is going on? Have you seen this?" He asked, showing him the paperwork on the seismic readings.

"Yeah, maybe not such a good time for a meeting," Takashi replied.

Joe leaned down and checked one of the monitors as he watched the traces of the seismic anomaly appear on the screen.

"What's the source?"

"Where's the epicenter?" He asked again.

"We don't know, but it keeps getting stronger," Takashi replied.

"It's got to be centered somewhere," Joe replied.

"Hayato?" Joe asked, turning to an elderly Japanese gentleman.

"No one else has reported in yet," Hayato replied.

"We are contacting every other plant in the Kanto region. Tokai, Fujiyama. They are unaffected. But my guess is these readings are just aftershocks from the Philippine earthquake," he said.

Joe was looking at other power readings of the plant, keeping a careful eye on all of the levels and trying to think of a solution to what was happening.

"Are we at full function?" He asked.

"Yes, we are," Takashi replied.

"But perhaps, we should be drawing down just to be safe?" Takashi continued.

Just then, a tremor shook the plant, causing the lights to flicker for a moment and the whirring of the plant began to falter.

"You take us offline!"

"Now Joe we got to-" his American colleague started, but was interrupted by Joe.

"Do it, now. Wind it down," Joe ordered.

Joe gave another order in Japanese to the other workers of the plant as he picked up a walkie talkie and tried to reach his wife.

"Sandra? Sandra, are you there?"

Another tremor shook the plant, flickering the power again.

Sandra and her team experienced the tremor as well, and they all began to panic as they looked around trying to find the source of the tremor. It didn't take long for Sandra to realize that was a foolish idea though, as she immediately looked to the others.

"We're turning back!" She ordered, gesturing towards the corridor from which they'd come.

"Let's go!" She ordered as a wall of toxic smoke appeared from around the corner of the hallway.

"Oh my god!" She exclaimed as she turned to run with the others.

"Joe are you there? Joe there's been a breach. We're heading back to the containment seal!" She said over the comms.

Joe picked up the walkie from which her voice was coming from.

"Sandra, listen to me. You need to get outta there! Run! If there's been a reactor breach you won't last five minutes with or without the suits do you hear me?"

"I hear you we're coming!" She yelled.

Another tremor, this time much more violent, shook the control room to the point where most of the men almost fell down from loss of balance. Everybody began evacuating, but Joe looked to Takashi with determination in his eyes.

"I'll meet hem down there myself! Put the safety doors on manual override!"

"Joe, I cannot do that!" Takashi called after him as Joe took off towards the doors.

"Keep the doors open, my wife is still in there!" He yelled back.

Takashi was reluctant, but did as ordered.

Joe ran through the plant, tremor after tremor obstructing his progress as well as that of the workers trying to evacuate. Several times he slammed into others and was knocked to the floor, but he would not give up. He got to his feet and ran on, only to be knocked down again and again. Sandra and her team continued running as well from the cloud of toxic gas chasing them.

"Come on let's go!" Sandra yelled.

Joe managed to finally get clear of the crowds of fleeing workers and made his way to the containment doors where he was hoping to see his wife. But she was not there. The doors were open, but they were empty.

"Takashi, tell me this doors is on manual."

"Manual, yeah. But Joe we are stopping the breach!"

"I'm right here! As soon as they're through I'll seal it!"

Joe looked down the corridor.

"Sandra, honey can you hear me? I'm at the door."

There was no reply.

"Sandra?" He asked.

"Sandra, I'm… I'm waiting for you!" He said desperately.

"I'm at the-" Joe was momentarily interrupted by static.

"-point, you have to run honey. You have to run as fast as you can!" He said.

"I am!" She yelled.

Another tremor shook the ground and knocked both Sandra and one of her colleagues to the ground. Sandra sat up and looked at the smoke before going to her fallen colleague as she tried to help him to his feet.

"Kenji! Kenji we have to go!" She said, looking up too late.

"Joe! You-!" Takashi pleaded, though his words were jumbled in the static as another small tremor shook the power.

"Nani? Mou ichidou!" Joe said, hoping Takashi could repeat the statement.

"Close the door! Seal the corridor or the whole city will be exposed!"

Joe looked slowly back to the empty corridor with dread in his eyes.

"… Sandra?!"

No response for a few seconds, until finally he heard her voice again.

"Joe? Joe can you hear me?"

Joe desperately grabbed at the walkie talkie, holding it as if it were a lifeline for Sandra.

"Yes!"

"Are you there?" She asked again.

"Sandra, I'm here can you hear me?" He asked.

"Yeah… Joe it's too late. We're not gonna make it," she said sadly.

"No, no don't say that! Don't you say that! Run as hard as you can honey!" Joe said, his desperation mounting.

"Joe you have to close it. You have to live… For our son," she pleaded.

Another tremor shook the ground, and Joe fought to keep his balance as his eyes slowly trailed upward.

"Joe! Seal the door! Now!" Takashi begged.

Joe then saw the wall of smoke appear from around the corner of the corridor beyond the doors.

"Oh my god," Joe whispered

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" He screamed as he finally slammed his hand down on the button to seal the doors.

It was the hardest single motion of his life. The doors closed and the smoke stopped short of breaching them to the world outside the plant's containment zone. The red lights within went off and the alarms started blaring, but to Joe they were but a distance afterthought as he collapsed forward against the wall.

His wife… His beloved wife whom he'd loved since the moment they met was now sealed behind those doors bathed in toxic fumes and radiation. Memories of his time with Sandra started flooding his mind. During their wedding, she'd taken a piece of the cake and pushed it into his nose. A lot of laughs were shared that day, and many more shared throughout their time together as husband and wife. No greater laughs of joy were heard than the day their son was born, and no greater happiness was had than every moment of his life leading up to this point.

Then, there was a knocking at the doors. The sound of fists hitting glass and metal woke him from his memories as his head turned slowly towards the doors. He saw the faces of a few of the other team members banging on the door begging to be set free, but Joe could only shake his head and whisper "I'm sorry."

Then, Sandra's face appeared.

Joe's hand instinctively found its way to cover his mouth as his tears began to overflow anew at the sight of his loving wife looking at him from behind the glass. Her sadness, and worse yet her acceptance, were plain to see. She knew she was going to die, and that there was nothing either could do about it. She took off her mask and smiled at Joe.

That smile was the final straw to Joe. His heart was already broken, but now it was beyond even that. His wife was dead already. Her body just hadn't caught onto the fact yet. And still she was smiling at him, trying to show him her support in the wake of her imminent death.

"Take care of Ford… Be a good father," she asked.

The doors started to close on the image of Sandra behind the glass, and Joe tried to fight a few more seconds to see her face for as long as possible.

"We didn't make it…" She said, smiling and chuckling for him as she waved from beyond the closing doors.

And finally, there was nothing.

It was just Joe and a pair of blue closed doors leading to a corridor where his wife awaited her fate. Then, the plant shook again, and Joe was shaken out of his sadness enough to realize that he was in the wrong place. The reactor was melting down, and he had to get out now or he too would become a casualty and he was not about to leave his son an orphan. He had lost his wife, and his son had lost his mother. He would not let him lose his father as well. Joe took off down the hallways, his tears still streaming from his eyes as he raced through the plant to the outside world and turned just in time to see the plant begin to come down on itself.

Meanwhile, at school, Ford had just been ordered to leave the classroom. Everyone knew there was a problem with the earth shook, but Ford knew better. He turned towards the windows and looked out at the reactor, watching as it fell down piece by piece and every fiber of his being cried out for his parents. However, his body was in too much shock to move. His brain wanted to yell. It wanted to cry. It wanted to fly to the plant and rescue his parents, but his body would not listen. He was frozen, watching helplessly as the place where his parents both worked came tumbling down, taking Ford's heart along with it.


	5. Chapter 3 - Homecoming

_**Chapter 3: Homecoming**_

_Date: May 14, 2014_

—

Memories flooded his mind at a most inopportune time as the doors to the back of the transport plane opened revealing the bright and shining sky outside.

Ford, now full grown and an EOD officer in the United States Navy, watched the world outside expand before his eyes as it finally sunk in that he was home again. It had been a long tour, but it was nice to finally see the sun in San Francisco as opposed to the dusty skies of third world countries disposing of bombs and improvised explosives created by guerrilla fighters and terrorists.

"You got family waiting for you?" One of his fellow soldiers asked.

"I hope so," Ford responded.

"How long you been away?"

"Fourteen months."

"Take it slow. It's the one thing they don't train you for," the soldier said.

Ford took the advice to heart and walked out of the craft to the streets and took in his surroundings. It was the same as he had left it, and it was just the way he liked it. He smiled to himself as he walked down the streets watching everyone go about their day. His family knew he was coming, but they didn't know when he'd be home. He wanted to see what he'd been missing. Absorb it. Take it all in and let the fact that he was finally home truly become part of him again.

He wandered down the street until he came to a corner and waved down a taxi who pulled over and gave him a nod.

"Goin' somewhere soldier?" The taxi man asked cheerfully.

"Home," Ford responded.

"Yeah? Well hop in!"

Ford did as asked and sat in the back seat dropping his bag next to him.

"So where did you go?"

"Overseas, and I'd prefer to leave it at that."

"Oh, all right. So, how long were you away?"

"About fourteen months or so."

"That's quite a while to be away. You got family?"

"Yeah. I got a wife and son."

"Oh really? Me too, but unlike you I only made it as far as driving a cab. Well good on ya for making your way in the army."

"Navy," Ford corrected.

"Oh, sorry. So you a SEAL?"

"No, I was in EOD."

"EO… what now?"

"Explosives ordinance disposal. My job was dismantling and disposing of explosives to make travel and operations safer for my unit."

The cabby whistled, giving a nod.

"You got some balls son, going up against explosives. Nobody could pay me enough for a job like that, but then that's why I never made it in the army… Er, navy."

Ford didn't say anything, he just chuckled and nodded silently to himself.

The cab made its way to Ford's home, and by the time he arrived the sun was already setting. Ford paid the cabby for the trip and watched as he left to find his next client. Ford turned to his home, a modest dwelling on the upper level of a hill among San Fran's many. It brought a smile to his face as he watched the door fly open and his young son, Sam, flew out into the driveway.

"Daddy!" Sam yelled.

"Hey big man!" Ford said, dropping his bag.

Sam jumped into his dad's arms and was lifted up into the air. Ford spun around with Sam cheering and laughing with Ford joining him in sharing in the joy of the moment. Ford set his son down after a few moments. patting him on the head.

"How have you been big man?" He asked.

"I've been good daddy! Mom and I missed you!"

"Oh yeah? Well I've missed you too. Where is your mom?"

"She's right here!" His wife called.

Ford looked up in time to see his wife, Elle, jogging towards him just as Sam had. Ford stood up and braced himself, but didn't have quite as much time as he wanted to in order to catch his wife as she jumped on him. Ford fell backward to the ground with Ell latched onto him. Her arms were around his neck and she was laying on top of him with a big smile plastered on her face as she leaned down to kiss him. Sam turned away making an "eeeww" sound and covering his eyes.

Ford and Elle shared the moment before getting up and giving each other a proper hug and both pulled Sam into the hug again whether he wanted it or not. The family gathered up Ford's belongings and all went inside. A cake had been baked that day and Sam had made Ford a "Welcome Home Daddy" sign hanging over the stairway. Ford was made to close his eyes and sit in the living room with a blindfold on as his cake was brought in to show him.

"What is it? What's this surprise you keep talking about?" Ford asked.

"I can't tell you," Sam replied.

"Can I see it?" Ford asked.

"Don't let him see! Don't let him see!"

Elle then set his cake down quietly until Sam told Ford he could look.

"Whoa! Oh my god!" Ford said as he spotted the cake.

"It's a welcome home cake," Elle said.

"Oh my god, look at that!" Ford said.

Sam then walked over to his sign and pointed up at it.

"That's you. And that's me."

"What's it say?" Ford asked.

"Welcome home daddy!" Sam said happily.

"Daddy's home…" Ford started.

"Daddy's home!" Elle confirmed.

"Cake every night!" Ford announced.

"Yeah, that's not happening!" Elle laughed.

"Daddy's home equals cake every night!" Ford announced again, much to Sam's delight.

"Oh my, how did you manage to get chocolate on your eyeball?" Elle asked Sam as he turned towards her.

"Daddy did it!"

Sam and Elle started laughing as Ford made a guilty and comical face and they all shared in the joy and laughter of having Ford home again. It had been a long and arduous fourteen months for everyone. Sam had a bit of trouble at school with some other kids being bullies, and Elle had been stressed out at work for some time now. Their hospital was having some financial trouble, and they were short on available nurses so Elle was almost always moving and having to go from patient to patient with little to no rest most days. Not only that, but most of her fellow nurses, save for one or two, were not very friendly or particularly helpful whenever she needed assistance.

But the joy of seeing her husband again after fourteen months trumped the stress of work, at least for now.

Ford continued to play with Sam for several hours. Sam showed him some of his newest toys including a few new action figures based on some of the newer movies which had come out and a train set tucked under his bed which he hadn't put together yet. Ford promised him that they'd start putting it together real soon before getting Sam ready for bed. But Sam wasn't done playing yet and the two started to wrestle for a short time until Ford decided it was time for Sam to go to sleep.

"I can't sleep with you making all this noise!" Ford joked, finishing a tickling session with Sam laughing all the way.

"Let's get you into bed," he said as he tucked Sam under the covers.

"Okay big man, time to hit the rack," he said, giving Sam a kiss on the forehead and a few pats on the stomach.

As Ford turned to leave and made it to the door, Sam spoke up.

"Dad," he asked as Ford turned to look at him.

"Are you still gonna be here tomorrow?" He asked.

Ford was silent a moment.

"Yeah. Come on, let's get some sleep," he said, turning out the light.

Ford and Elle stayed up for another hour or so with Ford telling her numerous stories about his time on deployment and some of the more humorous moments which occurred between himself and some of his fellow soldiers. Elle laughed genuinely throughout the tales until Ford sat down next to her and the two watched each other in silence for a few moments.

"God I missed your laugh," he said.

"I missed you," she responded.

Ford set his drink down and the two embraced and began kissing with Elle sitting on Ford's lap. However the phone began ringing right as they were starting to get into it, and Elle had to pull away.

"I gotta get that," she said.

"No," Ford protested, trying to persuade her not to.

"No, it could be work. I gotta get that," she insisted, pulling away with a smile as Ford kept protesting with groans of frustration.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Yeah, this is uh, this is Mrs. Brody," she said.

"Yell em you're busy tending to your husbands needs," Ford said, giving her a pat on the bottom.

She smiled and pushed his hand away playfully.

"Yeah, he's my husband," she said after a moment.

"Tell em we're not gonna buy it," Ford said, putting his glass away in the kitchen.

"… Yes um, could you hold on one moment?" She asked.

Ford came out of the kitchen, looking at her questioningly.

"It's the Consolate… Joe's been arrested in Japan."

A few moments later and Ford was getting ready to go get Joe out, but he was more than a little peeved as he searched his dresser drawers for his pants.

"Elle, I can't find my pants," he said.

"They're in the other drawer," she responded, walking over to him.

"So why was he trespassing in the quarantine zone?"

Ford scoffed.

"Why do you think?" He asked, turning to pack his pants in his bag.

"A lone crusader for the truth. Another of his crackpot, coo coo theories."

"Your father is a good man he just, he needs your help right now," Elle said, trying to persuade Ford that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Ford gave her a sideways glance, obviously irritated about her defending Joe.

"Ford, he's lost everything," she continued.

"Yeah, so did I. But you know what? I got over it," he retorted.

"Yeah, I can see that," she responded, obviously having taken the response a bit more seriously than Ford had intended.

"Sorry it's just… Every time I let him in close he always tries to drag me back and I can't, I can't put our family through that," he said.

"Well he is your family," she responded.

"Hey, come here," she cooed.

"You know you'reonly gonna be gone for a few days right? And then, you are gonna come back to me."

"Yeah… Yeah," he whispered.

The two embraced and kissed a few times before holding each other in a gentle hug.

"It's not the end of the world," she assured him.

Ford let out an exasperated breath as he was not looking forward to this trip to Japan.


	6. Chapter 4 - Broken Home

_**Chapter 4: Broken Home**_

_Date: May 15, 2014_

—

Ford had boarded an early flight and slept through most of it as he made his way to Tokyo, Japan. It was a long and uneventful flight, and by the time he got to the police station where Joe was being held it was mid afternoon. Seated in the lobby waiting for Joe's release after paying his bail, Ford watched a few people going in and out of the building. Some of them looked innocent enough whereas others clearly belonged here.

An electric door opened and a guard walked out speaking in Japanese about something as a teenager in gothic make up and attire walked out of the door. Ford couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, as the lipstick and the hair kind of threw his perception a bit. The fact that the individual was almost unhealthily thin didn't help with identification either, but given the nearly perfect flat chest he guessed it was a boy though it was still something of a toss up. The lack of proper muscular definition didn't make it easy. The teen's parents were obviously ticked as well, as they immediately started in and one of the words Ford heard was "baka" which, among other things, meant "idiot" in Japanese.

He watched the kid get dragged away by their parents until he turned his head and saw Joe look at him and offer a brief smile before being led out the door as well.

Their trip back to Joe's place was a long, silent, uncomfortable one. Ford had nothing to say to his father, and it didn't seem Joe had much to say either. Both were strangers to each other now, neither one having coped with the loss of Sandra in the same way. Ford had moved on and tried to begin anew while Joe was stuck in the past trying desperately to figure out what had happened that day. He just couldn't let it go, and Ford resented his father for not being able to just give it up and move on. She had died, and there was nothing either of them could have done.

When they made it back, Joe unlocked the door and let Ford in first as he carried his belongings in and turned on the light.

The walls were completely covered in magazine and newspaper articles over the last fifteen years and each of them had something to do with the incident in Janjira that day when the plant melted down. Ford was horrified to see so many postings all up at one time. It was like a scene out of a movie with each one being slightly different yet relating back to the same general incident. Pictures, graphs, articles and print outs… All of it pointed to extreme obsession of the very worst kind on Joe's part.

Ford looked around to Joe as he finished putting away his clothing and belongings.

"I don't get many visitors," Joe said almost jokingly.

Ford could only nod.

"Clearly," he said quietly.

"… This is you over here," Joe said softly as he walked over and cleared a space for Ford and his bag.

"There uh, PHD's don't get much teaching english as a second language…" Joe said as Ford spotted a newspaper title of "Nuclear Crisis Grows" on the wall.

"… Here we go, there, and the towel…" Joe muttered.

Ford continued to look around and spotted some familiar articles about the meltdown that everyone had heard about from that day. One in particular was "Janjira Electric Company denies role in cover-up," which Ford found particularly disturbing.

"So, how's the bomb business?" Joe asked.

"It must be a growth area these days," he continued.

"It's called "explosives ordinance disposal,"" Ford corrected as he looked around to see more clippings.

"1954: Cover-up in the South Pacific" was the next article he saw with a picture of the atomic bomb explosion on the front.

"And my job isn't dropping bombs, it's… stopping them," he said softly, spying a clipping about the quarantine zone.

"… Dad," Ford started.

"Hey, how's Elle doing?" Joe asked, smiling.

"And Sam? Oh my god, he's gotta be what? Three? Three and a half?"

"He's almost five," Ford corrected.

"I thought you were over this," he said, grabbing a book titled "Echolocation."

"Echolocation?" Ford asked.

"Oh, hey!" Joe said, walking over quickly and taking the book.

"No please don't, if you don't mind… Everything just the way I like it," he said gesturing to his bookshelf.

"It's just… I'm studying bioacoustics," Joe continued.

"What were you doing home back there?" Ford asked.

"Oh that trespassing stuff. That was just a bunch of bull!"

"You broke the law," Ford countered.

"I was just trying to get back to our old house," Joe snapped.

"Which is in a quarantine zone!" Ford yelled.

"Precisely!" Joe countered back.

"The new readings are exactly like they were on that day and I can prove it to you!" Joe said.

"With a little bit of luck if I can get back to my… the house, I can show you and the rest of the world that this was not a natural disaster, this was not-"

"Dad!" Ford interrupted.

There was silence between the two of them for a moment as the sound of the tea pot whistling in the background grabbed Joe's attention. He took a few breaths and took care of the tea pot, stopping the sound.

"Your mom's out there Ford," Joe said calmly.

Ford looked over to his dad, at first somewhat irate but gradually his expression softened.

"To me, she'll always be out there," Joe said again sadly.

Joe's memories of that day were flooding his mind, and his head shook ever so slightly out of unconscious frustration at his own helplessness that day.

"They evacuated us so quickly… I don't even, have a picture of her," Joe continued.

"This has to stop," Ford whispered.

Joe turned to Ford, tears beginning to come to his eyes.

"You know I did everything I could… You know that right?"

Ford took a breath and rocked back and forth for a moment on his feet as he let the breath out. His own eyes were starting to swell a bit and water as he fought back tears of his own recalling how he felt that day as well when he discovered his mother was dead and his father was in shock.

"Let me take you home," Ford said softly.

"Come home with me," he continued.

"I got a little boy who's desperate to see his grandpa," he concluded, trying to add a small smile.

Joe smiled back as his tears fell silently.

"We can leave tomorrow," Ford said, smiling at Joe.

The next morning, Ford was awoken by the sound of a radio communication coming in. It was somewhat garbled, but he opened his eyes as he heard his father speak.

"Yokatta. Arigatou," Joe whispered.

There was more response on the radio, and his father continued to speak to whomever was on the other end of the line. He was seated next to a computer with the radio at his ear and set it down as the conversation came to an end.

"Hai. Japan. Arigatou," Joe finished as he put down the radio and took off his glasses.

Joe turned and saw Ford standing there staring at him, and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"What are you doing?" Ford asked.

Joe stood up and started putting on a jacket.

"I'm heading back out there Ford," he said.

"No," Ford retorted.

"One hour, there-"

"I don't think so," Ford continued to protest.

"I have to go! I came back here and I wasted six years staring through that barbed wire thinking it was some military mistake or some horrible design flaw that they were covering up."

Joe started to speak but cut off his words short, letting out a breath instead.

"One day, I met a guy who runs a cargo boat offshore," Joe continued.

Ford looked to the wall and saw a picture of a Japanese gentleman with the partially darkened out title "Acoustic expert purports — debunk "strange noise" my— —". Ford couldn't read part of it from where he was standing, but it was enough to notice that this individual must have been part of the cover-up in Joe's mind.

"Every day he goes right passed the reactor site," Joe kept on as Ford saw a picture of a print out of Echolocation above Joe's computer.

"So he places a couple of frequency monitors on buoys for me… Two weeks ago, because I check this thing like every other day just for the kick in the teeth, two weeks ago, I'm tuning in… And oh my god. There it is! Whatever it is that's in there… Whatever it is they're guarding so carefully, started talking again. And I mean _talking_."

Joe turned around and grabbed another coat to put on.

"I have to go back to our house. I need my old disks, if they're still there. I need the data to be able to prove a baseline here. That this isn't a fantasy that I'm not… What you think I am," he said.

Ford looked at him with a combination of sadness and frustration.

"I'm not crazy," Joe said quietly, and somewhat sadly.

"I'm gonna find the truth, and end this. Whatever it takes."

"Why can't you just let her rest?" Ford asked.

"Because I sent her down there son," Joe responded.

Ford scoffed, shaking his head as his eyes welled.

"This wasn't just a reactor meltdown," Joe continued.

"I don't wanna hear this!" Ford said forcefully.

"I know. I know you don't. But you can't keep running away. And son you can't bury this in the past."

Ford looked down fighting back tears as he looked up with pursed lips and a furrowed brow with his eyes reddening and watering as he looked at his father. What he was saying made sense, but it didn't make it any easier to listen to.

Ford had been running away. He grew up without a father after the incident and joined the military to get away from the problems of his past, but really he was just running. Turning his back on what had happened and hoping it would go away. Hoping and praying that it would just disappear, but it didn't. It was there staring him in the face the whole time but he refused to acknowledge it.

Ford shook his head, still unable to believe that he was about to accept his father's request and go with him instead of trying to stop him again.

A few hours later they both were on a boat headed back to Janjira wearing protective suits put together by Joe to protect them from the fallout of the plant's meltdown fifteen years ago. The city looked like a proper ghost town with a thick mist all along the shore as they pulled the boat in and stepped on land. The city was overgrown with vines and ivy, and the rest of the city trashed in the panic that followed the meltdown.

Looking out into the city Ford could see broken business signs, knocked over carts and item stands, broken street lights, trashed cars, and even children's bicycles left behind in the rush. The whole thing brought a sense of unease with it which chilled Ford to the bone. The sun was out and the day was warm, but it didn't make it any less pleasant. All of the death and destruction wrought by the meltdown was just horrible to look at.

A few wild dogs ran past Joe and Ford as they kept walking towards their house.

"What spooked them?" Ford asked.

"Dad, come on. Let's go. It's only another two blocks," he continued.

Joe looked down and took out a geiger counter, and the reading was at zero. No clicking or positive signs of radiation anywhere.

"Dad!" Ford called.

"Are we going home or what?" He asked Joe.

Joe reached up and took off his mask.

"No, no, no! Hey! What are you doing?!" Ford demanded.

Joe took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Dad?" Ford asked.

"It's clean!" He declared.

"I knew it. The radiation in this area should be lethal but there's nothing!" Joe said angrily.

The two continued on to their house, which was just as overgrown as the rest of the city. All the walls were moldy and disfigured, the floors cracked or warped underfoot. The windows were broken, cracked, or so dirty that Ford couldn't see out of them. Everything that had once been home was nothing but a pile of debris and broken wood now. It was heart wrenching to recall their time spent here.

Even a small glass case which Ford had been growing moth larvae in was filled with mold and dirt. The moth in the cocoon was dead, and the cocoon frozen in place on the end of a stick. The label on the front said "DAD'S MOTH," with a sticker of something else partially covering the end with the letter's "RA" attached to the end of it which changed the label to "DAD'S MOTHRA". Ford remembered that he had helped his dad catch the larvae and fed it to help it grow. They were caring for it together in hopes of seeing it become a moth someday. But it never did make it out of the cocoon.

Joe upturned every pile of broken wood, books, paper, and whatever else was piled on top of something else as he searched for his old disks. Finally, after several minute of searching, he found them. Clearing away the debris, he picked up his old disks and they were still largely in tact. He clapped them together and was overjoyed that they looked to be in such good shape.

"Oh, thank god," he whispered.

He looked around a bit more, trying to see if he was missing anything until he froze in place.

There on the table was a broken picture frame with a picture of Joe, Ford, and Sandra. It was taken about a year before the incident, and the three of them looked so happy in the photo. Joe stared at it for several seconds, gently running his finger along the outline of his wife's form. Her genuine and loving smile looked as beautiful as it had the day she gave him her final farewell at the plant.

Even in death, she was smiling for him.

Joe's mouth curled up as tears welled in his eyes like never before. He clutched the picture to his chest and began weeping silently to himself at having finally seen a picture of his wife again after all these years. The memories of their happy times together came rushing back, and all the laughs and love they shared was filling his heart and renewing his spirits as he took another look at the picture before tucking it away in his coat.

Meanwhile, in the other room, Ford was looking through some of his old toys in his room when he found an old toy soldier on the ground. He picked it up and held it to see what it was.

Joe finished checking the room and wept his tears away before he looked up and saw the birthday sign Ford had made for him that day. It was still up, and it was still just barely legible. The rough and unprofessional spelling and formation of the letters and the honest effort put into it by his young son brought a smile to Joe's face as well as sadness to his heart for remembering that he'd failed to make that special day meaningful for his son. Instead, Joe's birthday marked the anniversary of his wife's death now, and would forever be a day of both joy and sadness blended into one.

Right about that moment, the sound of a helicopter flying overhead and the feeling of the wind generated by the rotors overcame the house. Both Ford and Joe made their way carefully outside to see where the chopper was and where it was going, and they were both amazed to see that it was headed towards the plant which had brand new lights all around it as well as what looked to be some kind of installation.

"Are they rebuilding the plant?" Ford asked.

"I don't know… I haven't seen-" Joe was cut off by the sight and sound of vehicles rushing up to their position.

Both Ford and Joe made a face as they knew exactly what to expect as they turned around and saw what looked to be some sort of security force approaching them with weapons drawn and hazard masks on. They were both thrown in the back of a van, with Ford's wrist being handcuffed to a pipe near the back as they were spirited away as the sun fell beyond the horizon of Janjira.


	7. Chapter 5 - Awakening

_**Chapter 5: Awakening**_

_Date: May 15, 2014_

—

Ford and Joe sat in the back of the vehicle as it raced down the old highway towards the Janjira plant. The vehicle rocked back and forth and both Joe and Ford sat in silence as the guards stared them down. Ford, had he not been handcuffed, would have at least tried to reason with them but that obviously wasn't an option now or he wouldn't have been handcuffed in the first place. Joe didn't bother speaking, as he knew they were part of the problem as to why he couldn't figure out what happened to his wife fifteen years ago.

As they approached the plant, Joe and Ford looked out the windows and saw that there was some kind of massive facility built over the remains. Security was at nearly every corridor, and men in hazard suits were running around all over the place. They approached a gate where the vehicle was stopped and the ID of the driver was checked before they were allowed to pass. As they entered the plant proper, they both saw the figure of a giant… object, pulsing red every so often.

The object pulsed slowly. Then it pulsed faster, and faster, until it let out an EMP effect which momentarily shorted the power before it returned right away. The computer monitors brought up the scans of the pulses and showed that the pulses were growing shorter.

"7.2 seconds, and getting stronger," said one of the workers inside the control room.

"We're draining exponentially. That's our new curve," he continued as he pointed to the images.

"Jesus, it's worse than we thought," said one of the other men in the room.

"Excuse me, doctor Serizawa," a security officer said as he walked into he room.

"Two men were just arrested in the Q zone," he said.

"We've got bigger problems here, have doctor Graham take a look," one of the men in charge next to Serizawa said.

"She did sir, she sent me. One of them says he used to work here doctor," the officer continued.

Doctor Serizawa and Graham walked through the broken down plant towards the room being used as a makeshift interrogation room. As they walked, they could hear the voice of Joe Brody as he argued with the interrogator.

"You're not fooling anybody when you say, that what happened fifteen years ago was a natural disaster all right?" Joe said.

"We found these disks and print outs in his bag," Graham said as she showed Serizawa Joe's confiscated belongings.

"We're not sure what to make of it," she said.

"It was not an earthquake. It wasn't typhoon, okay? So stop-" Joe let out an exasperated sigh.

"Look I'm tired of talking to you about this, I want my son. I want to see my son, I want to know that he's all right," Joe continued as he looked to the security officer standing behind the interrogator.

"This guy. This guy knows. He knows where he is. Musuko wa doko da?" Joe demanded.

"I want my son! And I want my bag, and disks! And I wanna talk to somebody in charge, not you."

"Mr. Brod-" The interrogated began, but was cut off by Joe.

"No, no, not you! I'm done talking to you! All right?" Joe said, looking at the glass and the people he knew were behind it though he couldn't see them.

"What? You're looking at me right now like I'm in a fish tank right? That's fine because I know what happened here."

Serizawa and Graham looked up at Joe slowly as he continued to speak.

"And you keep telling everybody that this place is a death zone, but it's not. You're lying! Because what's really happening, is that you're hiding something out there!… I'm right aren't I?"

Joe took a moment to pause, taking a few breaths as he began to get very emotional.

"My wife, died here!" He yelled, tears welling in his eyes.

"Something, killed my wife!" He said, barely able to keep his sentence clear.

Serizawa looked at Joe with a certain kind on unspoken understanding and sympathy as Joe continued to speak.

"And I have a right to know!… I deserve answers!" Joe demanded through his tears.

Serizawa let out a sigh and looked back down to the disks in his hands, taking another close look at all of the labels and charts Joe had with him.

"All these items, they were found on him. And the tape, look, fifteen years ago," Graham said quietly.

"I thought all the data from that day was lost," Serizawa responded.

"I guess not," Graham said.

Another pulse shorted the power for a moment, grabbing everyone's attention as all the lights flickered on and off repeatedly.

"See? You see?!" Joe started.

"There it is again… That is _not_ a transformer malfunction, that is an electromagnetic pulse! It affects everything electrical for miles and miles and it is happening again! This is what caused everything in the first place! Don't you see that?!" Joe yelled, slamming his hands on the edge of the one way window and looking out at Serizawa and the others even though he still couldn't see them.

"And it is gonna send us back to the stone age!" He continued.

Serizawa's face contorted in silent alarm as the weight of Joe's words finally sunk in.

"You have no idea what's coming…" Joe said, finally going back to sit down in his chair.

Just then, another flicker of power rocked the plant.

Back in the control room, panic was beginning to mount.

"The pulses are seconds apart!" One workman said.

"They're getting stronger, and it's affecting the power grid," another said.

"Any radiation leakage?" One of the men in charge asked.

"Gamma levels are still zero. It sucked all three reactors dry," said one of the other scientists monitoring the information on the screens.

Serizawa arrived in the control room just in time to see the object pulsing again as it let out another emp. Small fragments of the object began to fall away to the ground, and the workmen outside standing below it were forced to scatter.

"It's done feeding," Serizawa said.

"What's this?… Jesus, it's the same pattern," said the man in charge.

"Fifteen years ago, it's what caused the meltdown," Serizawa confirmed.

"It's an electromagnetic pulse. That's what it's building to. Converting all that radiation until it hatches!" Graham said, catching up to Serizawa.

"We have to shut down!" Serizawa ordered.

"Secure the grid! Wildfire protocols!"

the object pulsed again, releasing another emp burst.

"All personnel, clear the first perimeter immediately!"

Outside, alarms started going off like mad.

Men scattered about too and fro as they cleared the perimeter around the object. Lights focused in on the strange "egg" as the numerous wires and cables were moved into position to try and contain whatever was inside. It was a bit of a slow process, and all the while the monstrous object continued to pulse. Finally, after a few moments, the cables were in place and the word was given.

"Good, secure," one of the scientists said.

There was silence throughout the room, with expressions of disappointment, frustration, and fear all around. Serizawa watched the massive object quietly by himself, standing right in front of the glass as he lowered his head slightly. His voice was almost a whisper.

"… Kill it," he said.

There was a momentary pause as the shock of the order set in, but the scientist from before struck a large button sending several million volts of electricity through the massive object. The cries of the creature inside could be heard as the electricity entered the object. Part of it was blown off, falling to the ground nearly on top of a few workmen who had remained a bit too close for narrowly avoided the falling debris from the object as they regained distance from it.

Back inside, Serizawa looked away with a pained expression on his face. As a scientist, he did not like the idea of killing such a revolutionary discovery. Whatever was inside could hold answers to questions they'd been pondering for centuries, but now there was nothing they could do. They had to kill it. Whatever was inside was dangerous, and they couldn't risk letting it live. He knew that, but it didn't make the decision any easier. Serizawa was almost brought to tears facing the fact that he had given this order. Also contributing to this pain was the sound of the readings going flat.

"All readings are flat line," said the scientist who pressed the button.

"Get a visual," the man in charge said.

Men around the base of the object gathered in a bit closer. The object was still and silent, and the lights all focused on it but it seemed dead. No further cries came from it, and no motion or sounds of movement within were heard either. They watched and approached with great caution as the sounds of a single individual on a metallic stairway leading up to the massive object reverberated throughout the air. The echoes of his footsteps seemed much louder than they were due to the silence surrounding them. As he approached, he turned on his flashlight and saw that the sections which had broken away seemed to be covered in some kind of slime.

He leaned over a bit to get a better view, and shined his light inside one of the openings to the object. Something dark brown with white streaks was moving. It was slimy, disgusting, but it was moving. The movement was slight, and it got a curious reaction as he leaned in a bit farther to try and see what it was. However, it was the last thing he saw. The slimy object shot forward breaking out of the massive "egg" and slamming into the man and his flashlight. He was dead before he hit the ground below, with metal and bits of the "egg" flying everywhere as the sounds of the creature roaring now filled the air.

The creature broke its upper torso free, raising a single long arm with a wicked hook at the end of it up into the air as it glowed red before slamming it down on the ground. The impact released a powerful emp, and the glowing in its arm went away. All power began to shut down as the visible wave of energy traveled out father and father.

"Jesus! Check the grid!" Said one man.

"We're losing power!" Said another.

The wave continued to expand, shutting down everything electric as it went until even the hand held radios and walkie talkies were completely shut down.

Sitting in his chair in the interrogation room, Joe sat quietly until all the lights went out and the sound of the mechanical lock on his door opening up grabbed his attention. He turned his head to see the door sliding open a ways, and he got up to see if anyone was outside the room. But he was alone. This was perfect, as he knew this was his chance to see what was going on and to try and find some answers. His bag and disks were not there, but he knew they had to be here somewhere. But whatever else was going on was pretty big, and he followed the sound of screaming and yelling outside.

In the vehicle, Ford was still handcuffed to the interior as he watched the power go out and all the men outside began scrambling about trying to figure out what to do. Ford couldn't tell exactly what was going on, but he knew that something was going horribly wrong. Why else would panic like this set in so quickly? But just then, Ford heard something. A strange and guttural sound like nothing he'd ever heard before. It was a strange clicking sound mixed with a moan-like vocalization. It was primal, eerie, and somewhat frightening.

Meanwhile, back in the control room.

"Get the backup generator online," said the man in charge calmly.

"We're working on it! That pulse fried every circuit."

The men inside flipped all kinds of buttons and button combinations until they finally got the backup generator online as the power began to slowly come back. The sound of the power coming back on was comforting in its own way, but it also brought a sense of dread. As the lights flashed, the creature outside could be seen emerging from its cocoon, and the sound of it roaring made everyone begin to instantly panic.

The creature roared in fury and shook itself free of the rest of its cocoon, stomping the ground with its arms as it tried to force the remainder of the exterior material off of itself.

"Everybody out! Now!" The man in charge yelled.

Complete chaos ensued. All sense of protocol and discipline was lost in the wake of the order to evacuate. All the workers and scientists scrambled for the exits as the creature continued to violently free itself from the shell still attached to it. Joe finally made it outside and found himself on a catwalk walking in the opposite direction as the fleeing workers. One of them knocked into him, and as he did Joe heard the sound of the creature roaring and was frozen in wonderment and confusion. Looking out over the catwalk's edge, he saw the creature stomping the ground and shaking itself free as it also began trying to wrestle the cables overhead away so it could get out of its prison.

The lights around the creature were flickering like strobe lights adding to the creature's anger. Ford, in the mean time, saw the chaos erupt and began banging on the back door of the vehicle.

"Hey! Let me out! Hey!" He yelled as he bashed the window hard enough to break the glass.

Some sort of containment team arrived, but it didn't matter anymore. The moment they saw the creature's two massive hooked arms rising into the sky, they all froze. Higher and higher they went until they found their way to the first set of cables overhead and began slowly dragging them down into the pit. The sounds of creaking and groaning cables filled the air as the towers and braces attached to the cables began to snap and fail all over. The cables themselves also began to snap on occasion, leading to disastrous results in the immediate area. Massive cranes holding the cables up began to fall down from the pressure, and Joe turned around to see one such object falling his way.

The workers around him were still running away, but Joe knew that if they kept going in that direction they would be killed. He tried to grab one of the workers and stop him from running, but it was too late. The crane debris fell down on them knocking Joe back. He grabbed hold of the railing in time to save himself, but another incident which took place as a result of this newest development was that the vehicle Ford was in was struck by the falling debris. The vehicle was sent tumbling end over end with Ford doing his best to brace himself inside as it continued to roll over and over.

"Ford!" Joe shrieked.

The debris skidded across the ground for several yards before coming to a stop. Ford realized that his handcuffs had been broken free and he walked out of the vehicle in time to see a couple men inside the small room from the crane being dragged down into the pit with the cables. The cable line itself tensed and tightened, and Ford's eyes followed it as it led back to the catwalk Joe was standing on.

Father and son made eye contact, and then it was over.

The cable snapped and bent the catwalk, sending Joe falling down beyond Ford's view as more debris came down in that area around Joe.

"Dad!" Ford screamed.

He was halted from running to his father's aid by the sound of the creature releasing a powerful roar. Slowly, Ford turned around with eyes wide with a mixture of anger and fear as he saw the creature's arms rising up shortly followed by its head and torso. It was finally free.

The massive creature took its first step outside of the pit as its two front claws came down like a pair of giant pistons smashing anything caught underneath as if it wasn't even there. Its two hind legs came next, each one looking similar to that of a hoofed animal, with two primary toes and rear facing knee joints. The two front legs supported its upper body as its rear legs moved forward crushing several workers and vehicles underfoot as Ford dove out of the way. The creature only took a few steps and had covered over one hundred and eighty feet from the pit before Ford had to find a hazmat mask to cover his face.

His breathing was labored and ragged from his racing heart and it was the only thing he heard as he watched the giant monster before him continue to trample the workers and smash bits of the surrounding plant to pieces. However, it seemed to grow weary of such efforts and opened a massive pair of wings which it had previously tucked against its back. The wings beat heavily, with each one coming down on Ford like a heavy wave of water at the ocean during a storm. The impact was nearly suffocating, knocking the breath from Ford each time until it was high enough in the air where the pressure waves didn't hit as hard.

Ford watched it fly away into the night, uncertain of how to wrap his head around all of this chaos.


	8. Chapter 6 - The Alpha Predator, Gojira

_**Chapter 6: The Alpha Predator, Gojira**_

_Date: May 16, 2014_

—

On the news was a report of a 6.3 earthquake in Japan. The moving text below brought news of a radiation leakage with fires spreading throughout the deserted suburbs of Janjira, Japan.

"Well it absolutely was unlike anything I've ever experienced," said a local on the news in the background on television.

"Yeah, it's uh, Ford Brody," Elle said on the phone.

She had been trying to contact him ever since she heard about the incident early in the morning when she woke up to prepare for work, and nothing had gone through yet.

"Uh, Japan to San Francisco?" She said questioningly, inquiring about her husband's status as a passenger on a flight back to San Francisco presumably with Joe coming with him.

"Okay could, could I at least, just, if you could let me leave you my cell… Hello?" She asked as the phone went offline.

"Dammit!" She exclaimed, throwing the phone down onto the ground.

Sam had just finished getting dressed and ready for school when she did that, and was frozen next to the kitchen counter watching his mom anguish about the absence of her husband and her lack of ability to contact him. Elle put her hands down, seemingly sensing Sam's presence as she looked at him and smiled.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, walking over to him and opening her arms to bring him close for a hug.

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay, daddy's gonna be okay… Daddy's gonna be okay," she assured him, though in her heart she was not sure of anything.

Back in Janjira, a helicopter flew in from beyond the wreckage of the plant.

"This area is now under NATO military jurisdiction… All personnel must report to duty officers for debrief," called an announcer over a loudspeaker.

Dr. Serizawa stood among the wreckage, examining the damage done and looking over at the bodies which were being collected.

It was a grisly sight. Several workers had been turned literally into red smears on the ground under the weight of the giant creature's feet while others were just mangled and bent in ways their body's weren't supposed to be after being thrown around like rag dolls. The giant monster's path of destruction was quite obvious to his discerning eye, and he could tell, even among all this debris, where the creature had stood and walked before taking flight to leave the area. Bodies were being loaded into bags and taken to ambulances and other vehicles to be taken away to the nearest hospital morgues while those who survived were being rushed to the nearest emergency medical units for examination and hopeful treatment.

Serizawa was then approached by Dr. Graham and a tall african gentleman in american military dress.

"Doctor Serizawa!" Graham called to him as she jogged in his direction avoiding the men carrying body bags.

"Doctor Serizawa!" She called again, approaching and laying a hand on his arm as he didn't respond to the first two calls.

"Doctor Serizawa," she said more quietly this time.

"Captain Russell Hampton. Glad to find you sir," the captain said.

"I've been briefed on your work with operation MONARCH. Now I'm told your organization has situation awareness of our unidentified creature?"

Serizawa slowly looked over to him in silence.

"Is that right?" The captain asked again.

Serizawa offered a single nod of his head in response.

"I'm here to inform you that we are now taking over operational authority from MONARCH. So I'm gonna need you to come with me. Is there any other personnel you need?" The captain asked.

Serizawa turned and looked around.

His eyes came across more dead bodies… A lot of help they'd be at this point. He kept searching faces of the living, scanning over each one individually as quickly as he could until he happened to see both Joe and Ford Brody preparing to board an ambulance. Joe was hurt pretty badly with his head and neck in a brace with Ford looking out for him as best he could.

Serizawa pointed across the way towards Joe and Ford, looking back to the captain.

"Them," he said.

Ford and Joe were whisked away on a chopper heading out of Janjira towards the Pacific Ocean.

Joe lay in a medical bed with Ford leaning over the side trying to keep Joe calm and assuring him he'd be all right.

"Shh… Shh… Dad," Ford said quietly.

Joe's vitals ticked by slowly and steadily, as he was stable for the time being.

Serizawa looked on sadly, watching Joe and Ford interact quietly and carefully as Joe tried to speak. Ford reached out and took off the breather his father was wearing to let him speak.

"Hey… Hey…" Joe whispered.

"You gotta," he continued, cut off by Ford.

"You were right… I'm sorry," Ford said, the latter part of his response to Joe being particularly full of sadness and exposed regret.

"… G-g… Go home to your family," Joe said.

Ford leaned away a bit, taking in a breath.

"Keep them safe… O-okay?… Whatever it takes," Joe continued weakly.

"Whatever it… tak-…" Joe's words trailed off as he closed his eyes and his vitals started to drop.

"Hey, stay with me," Ford said quietly.

"Dad…?" He asked.

"Dad?!" He asked again, more forcefully.

"How's his pulse?" Asked one of the medics.

"It's getting weaker I can barely feel it," responded the other.

"We're losing him!" The first one said again.

"Joe, can you hear me?" Asked the second.

"He's going into afib!" Said the first.

"Give me another EPI, one milligram!" Ordered the second, with EPI being a shot of adrenaline.

"Stay with us!" Come on Joe, hang in there!" The medics said.

Ford sat there watching his father in shock, grabbing furiously at the sides of his head and rocking back and forth as he tried to keep himself calm. Consciously, this was a psychological response to keep himself calm. Subconsciously, he was trying to keep himself calm to further help keep his father calm should he pull through. The adrenaline would hopefully be of help, but there was no way to tell at the moment. Ford could barely contain himself as his hands closed into fists at the sides of his head and he fought back tears hoping that his father would be all right.

Serizawa watched in silence, silently hoping as well that Joe would pull through. There were many things he wanted to ask him about his work in the plant fifteen years ago and there were even more things he would have to tell Joe should he survive. Joe was right. He deserved answers, and Serizawa had to the chance to give him those answers if Joe were able to survive this ordeal. Serizawa looked to Dr. Graham, who also sat in silence with a look of sadness on her face.

Not more than twenty minutes later, the chopper landed on the deck of the USS Saratoga, an aircraft carrier in the US Navy just off the coast of Japan. Joe was rushed to the infirmary where the medics scrambled to help keep him alive as Ford was taken along with him. Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham were asked to go to the planning room, where the current military leader of this operation was now giving a speech about how to deal with this new threat.

"This is our needle in a haystack people!" He said, pointing towards a series of television monitors displaying footage of the creature from before.

"M.U.T.O., Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism. It is however no longer terrestrial, it is airborne. Now the world still thinks this was an earthquake and it would be preferable that that remained so. Before we lost sight of it it was headed east across the Pacific, and had emitted enough emp to create havoc with our radar and satellite feeds and reduce us, for the moment, to a strictly visual pursuit. I emphasize "for the moment," because we will get on our game… And we will find this thing," he said, turning back to face the crew.

"It is imperative that we do so," he concluded.

"Captain I want any and all search options on this table ASAP," he said.

"Yes, sir," Captian Russell responded.

The man in charge walked over to Dr. Serizawa, who had just arrived.

"Dr. Serizawa… Admiral William Stenz," he said, extending his hand.

Serizawa shook his hand, responding with "Nice to meet you," before the admiral continued.

"Glad to have you on board," Stenz said.

"Sensei," Graham said from the door, beckoning Serizawa over.

"Excuse me," Serizawa said to the admiral.

Serizawa jogged over to Graham, who whispered to him that Joe Brody was awake and had been moved to the meeting room where they could finally discuss with him what happened at the plant fifteen years ago to give him some closure, as well as inform him of what they were planning to do next. Serizawa was joyed at the news, and rushed with Graham to the meeting room where Ford waited silently with his father who was still bed bound. However, Joe was smiling at his son who wept silent tears of joy by his father's side, rubbing Joe's shoulder and speaking softly about how sorry he was for doubting him for so long.

Joe shook his head lightly and assured Ford it was all right, that he would have likely done the same thing were the situation reversed.

Serizawa then walked into the room, taking a moment to acknowledge the Brody's as he and Graham walked over to the table.

"Gentlemen," Serizawa began.

"I am glad to see that you are both here," he said, walking over to Joe's bedside.

"Mr. Brody, it is nice to meet you," he said, reaching down and putting his hand on Joe's own since Joe was still too weak to raise his hand to shake.

"Thanks," Joe replied softly.

Serizawa nodded, looking to Ford.

"Lieutenant," he said with a nod.

Ford nodded back.

"It is my hope that you will both agree there is much to talk about," Serizawa said as Graham walked in quietly behind him.

Joe nodded his head.

"Yeah there is… I was right, wasn't I?" He asked.

Serizawa nodded.

"Your data confirmed that it was the giant creature fifteen years ago which caused the meltdown, also resulting in the loss of your wife… My condolences," Serizawa said sincerely, bowing his head slightly.

Joe nodded, closing his eyes as they filled with tears.

"I've been searching f-… for fifteen years. It's nice to finally know why she died," Joe said quietly, letting his tears fall.

Ford too shed a few silent tears, patting his dad's shoulder.

Serizawa and Graham looked at one another, sharing a silent moment of happiness for the pair as they could both close this chapter of their lives and finally move forward.

"Now, Mr. Brody," Serizawa continued.

"I have many things to show you. Please direct your attention to the screen behind me," he said, backing away so Joe could get a better look.

The projection device fired up and began showing footage of the USS Nautilus in 1954, as well as other images of special events taking place during that time.

"In 1954, the first time a nuclear submarine ever reached the lower depths… It awakened something," Serizawa began.

"The Americans first thought that it was the Russians. The Russians thought that it was them… All those nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific," Graham said.

The screen showed footage of the nuclear bombs going off one by one, ending with the Castle Bravo footage.

"… Not tests,' Graham continued.

"They were trying to kill it," Serizawa added.

The footage then cut to a massive creature rising out of the water with a nuclear warhead in the foreground. It froze after just a moment, showing the spines and tremendous body of some kind of enormous reptilian creature

"Him…" Serizawa continued.

"An ancient, alpha predator," Serizawa said.

"Millions of years older than mankind. From an age when the world was ten times more radioactive than it is today. This animal, and other like it, consumed this radiation as a food source. But as the levels on the surface naturally subsided, these creatures adapted to live deeper in the oceans, further underground, absorbing radiation from the planets core. The organization we work for, MONARCH, was established in the wake of this discovery. A multinational coalition formed in secrecy to search for him. Study him. Learn everything we could," Graham told the two.

"We call him…" Serizawa turned to the two men.

"Gojira."

"The top of a primordial ecosystem… A God, for all intents and purposes," Graham stated.

"A monster," Ford whispered.

Joe listened quietly and watched the screen, studying Gojira's anatomy and the way he moved from what little footage was shown. Gojira moved similarly to a crocodile in the water, but his back remained largely straight using only his tail as a means of propulsion rather than undulating his entire spine left and right like his much smaller reptilian counterpart. The spines were unique as well, and Joe could not figure out what purpose they could possibly serve. They didn't appear to have the kind of surface area needed to regulate body heat, though perhaps the sheer number of them served the purpose anyway but he couldn't be sure. Gojira also seemed to spend much of his time under the water which meant that he had to either have a tremendous lung capacity or he could breathe underwater which meant he had gills somewhere.

"Fifteen years ago we found the fossil of another giant animal in the Philippines, like Gojira. But this creature died long ago, killed by these," Serizawa said as the screen showed images and footage of the MUTO pods.

"Parasitic spores," Graham added.

"One dormant, but the other hatched. Catalyzed when a mining company unknowingly drilled into its tomb," she continued, looking to make sure Joe and Ford were on the same page.

"The hatchling burrowed straight for the nearest source of radiation, Joe's power plant in Janjira, and cocooned there for fifteen years absorbing its radioactive fuel to gestate, to grow."

"Until it hatched, like a butterfly, into the creature you saw last night," Serizawa added.

"Whoa, wait. You knew about this?" Ford asked.

Joe cleared his throat, and Ford immediately looked to his father.

"It's all right Ford… What could they have done?" He asked.

"They could have killed it when they had the chance!" Ford said angrily.

Joe shook his head.

"No son… If they had tried, it might have released the radiation it was absorbing into the environment which would have endangered countless lives."

Ford was not convinced, but he trusted his father's word and silenced himself and subdued his anger.

"Sorry," Joe whispered to Serizawa.

Serizawa nodded, happy that Joe was strong enough to contribute to the conversation.

"So this Gojira… You said that the nuclear tests were attempts to kill it, right?" He asked weakly.

Serizawa and Graham both nodded.

"Why were they only "attempts." Shouldn't they have worked?" Joe asked.

Serizawa shook his head.

"Gojira managed to survive the Castle Bravo nuclear strike, a blast yielding fifteen Megatons of energy. That amount of power should have vaporized him, but Gojira managed to survive. We don't know where he is right now, but we do know that he is alive because he was seen walking retreating from the area around an hour after the bomb went off," Serizawa said.

"We believe that Gojira's sheer size was his salvation. The inverse cube law dictates that the greater the amount of matter energy released during an explosion has to pass through, the less energy actually makes it through. The energy which did manage to make it through Gojira's body caused damage to his internal organs and bones, but the rest of it either passed over and around or ended up causing the burns when the extreme heat next struck his body. Thanks to his body being submerged in water, the few fractions of a second those temperatures remained were not enough to reach him. The evaporation process of the water covering him sucked away most of the thermal energy allowing him to just barely survive the blast," Graham added.

"Gojira received grievous injuries from the blast, but he survived all the same," Serizawa stated as he pointed to the screen.

The next image was a still taken by Serizawa's father of Gojira right before he retreated into the depths of the ocean that day. His body was littered with darkened burns and exposed bone on his shoulders, hands, spines, and even on his face. His left arm was hanging as if broken and useless, with his left side slumping which was a clear indication of a limp. But all the same, as Serizawa stated, he had survived.

"I still don't understand," Joe said quietly.

"The thermal energy alone released during the blast should have vaporized him… Was the water really enough?" He asked.

Serizawa nodded.

"Barely," he responded.

"The water covering his body acted, if you will, as a buffer. The bulk of the thermal energy was absorbed during the momentary evaporation process and the residual heat was powerful enough to burn him severely but not kill him. The blast force as well was buffered by the water, as it is denser than air, shielding him from the vast majority of the blast's power. Even at fifteen Megatons, Gojira is at least a quarter mile away from the blast as you can see from this image. We estimate him to be around three hundred and fifty feet in height judging by the photograph, and again his sheer size was also one of the keys to his salvation. The inverse cube law worked in his favor, and his body's natural durability did the rest," Graham concluded.

Joe rested his head back.

"What a creature," he whispered, completely awe of Gojira's survival power.

Serizawa nodded, pleased at Joe's fascination and awe at Gojira.

"Wait a sec," Ford interjected.

"You said this thing feeds on radiation right? Wouldn't a nuke's radiation make it stronger or something then?" He asked.

Serizawa shook his head.

"A "food" source and a "power" source are two very different things lieutenant," Graham said.

"Only around five percent of a nuclear bomb's energy upon detonation is radiation energy, and even then it would only serve to slate Gojira's hunger. It would not in any way make him stronger," Graham continued as he looked to Joe.

"Mr. Brody, I hate to ask but now we must turn the conversation around. We have told you what we know, and now we ask that you tell us what you know," Graham said.

Joe nodded, taking a moment to collect his thoughts.

"After the death of my wife, Sandra, I started doing research on the incident at a rather rapid pace. I gathered every document and print out I could of that day and studied the conspiracies surrounding it for years. I also started studying bioacoustics, as I didn't believe for a second that the emp was caused by anything "unnatural," as most of the reports were saying."

"Wait, bioacoustics?" Graham asked.

"Yes… Echolocation," Joe responded.

"That creature wasn't just emitting an emp. It was "talking."" Joe continued.

"Talking?" Serizawa asked.

"Yes… Talking," Joe responded.

"If the MUTO was talking that day… Did you find a response call?" Serizawa asked.

"A response?" Joe asked.

Serizawa nodded.

"An identical but separate call, perhaps even right after the MUTO's own… Check again," Serizawa said to Graham.

"Yep," she responded as she got up to sift through the data they had acquired so far.

"So what now?" Ford asked.

"The MUTO is young… Growing. It will be looking for food," he said.

"We're monitoring all known sites but… If we don't find it soon," she said, trailing off.

"Then what?" Ford asked.

"Nature has an order. A power to restore balance," Serizawa started, turning towards the still image of Gojira.

"I believe _he _is that power," he concluded.


	9. Chapter 7 - Trouble In Honolulu

_**Chapter 7: Trouble In Honolulu**_

_Date: May 16, 2014_

—

Ford and Joe were both taken to the flight deck where a chopper was waiting for them to take the pair to Honolulu, and from there back to San Francisco. As they approached, one of the other soldiers gave them a short debrief about the plan ahead for the two of them.

"Sirs, right now we're fifty miles from Hawaii. This transport will take you there. You capture a commercial flight back to San Francisco!"

Ford nodded, helping to lift his father's bed into the chopper across the back seats as carefully as possible. Joe was still in rough shape, but his vitals had all been fully stabilized and he was on a fair dose of painkillers. He was sleepy, and half the time didn't know what was going on, but he was alive. For now, that was all Ford was worried about.

The doors to the chopper closed, and they were both air lifted away from the carrier towards Hawaii.

A few hours later and back in San Francisco, Elle was preparing Sam for bed.

"I need you to brush your teeth," Elle said, holding Sam back from trying to run away from the bathroom.

"Ew, those are terrible! We got to brush them!" She said jokingly.

Meanwhile, her cell phone in the living room was ringing on silent mode.

_Hey this is Elle, you missed me. Please leave a message, _said her voicemail.

Ford rubbed his forehead.

"Elle… I-I don't know what they're saying on the news," he began, looking down at Joe.

"There was an accident in Japan… Dad's hurt, but I've got him here with me. We're catching a lift to Hawaii and should be there in a little while. From there we'll catch a flight home to San Francisco. I'll see you soon," he said, hanging up the phone.

Doctor Serizawa was back on the carrier in the planning room looking through the information stored on their databases about the calls going out from the MUTO before. Each time he pressed the next button, the next call pattern would emerge on screen. Until…

"Keep scrolling… Near the end, before the emp," Graham said.

Serizawa jumped ahead a bit towards the end where they saw not one call, but two. The second one even stronger than that of the MUTO's call.

"There, something responded," Serizawa stated.

Back in Honolulu, Ford was on a train leading to the airport while Joe had been taken there directly by ambulance. Ford didn't like the idea of leaving his dad's side in his condition, but he was no medic and he trusted those who were medics to do their jobs safely and efficiently.

He brought out one of the toys he'd found back at the house in Janjira, an old soldier figure which he turned around in his fingers a few times.

_Aloha, and welcome aboard. The train will begin moving shortly. Remain seated, and no smoking. Thank you!_ The train announcement said.

Ford looked up in time to see a child in a red shirt and blue baseball cap watching him and looking at the soldier action figure in his hands. Ford offered the kid a small smile, looking about and letting out an exasperated breath.

_Please remain clear of the automatic doors._

Ford then heard the sound of the child's parents clamoring for their son, Akio, to get away from the doors. They were speaking Japanese, and Ford's was more than a bit rusty. The child was closed inside, crying for his parents as they tried to get the door to open. Ford immediately stood up and rushed over trying to help pry the door open to let the kid out, but it wouldn't budge. The train lurched forward and began moving, with the kid and parents both running along the train keeping eye contact and hoping that it would stop.

Ford ran to the kid and caught him, trying to remember how to say to the parents that it would be all right.

"It's okay, I'll bring him back!" He shouted, gesturing with his arm moving in a circle hoping they'd understand that he'd stay with the kid until the train came all the way back around.

"Hey, okay. It's okay. I'm gonna get you back to your mom and dad okay?" Ford said.

Akio nodded a few times.

"Kay. Is this what you want?" Ford asked, holding up the soldier for Akio.

Akio slowly reached out to take the soldier, a bit shy but happy to receive a present.

"Take good care of him for me… I better not miss my flight kid," Ford said as he sat down next to Akio.

Back on the USS Saratoga in the planning room, Serizawa was jotting down some notes when he heard the captain addressing the admiral.

"Admiral, we received an intel report. We lost track of a nuclear cooler fifty nautical miles northwest of Hawaii. Could be the MUTO," the captain said.

Serizawa looked up, rather alarmed and turned to face the admiral.

"Just got word of a missing Russian sub in the North Pacific… Martinez," Stenz said, looking to one of the soldiers monitoring their communications.

"Aye sir, special forces team Sparta One is picking up a distress signal Northwest of Diamond Head on the island of Oahu. They're on the ground and headed to the beacon," Martinez responded.

In the jungles of Oahu just outside the main city, the teams trudged through the damp woods on their way to find the cooler which was lost. Along the way, they heard the sounds of the forest coming alive all around them. The bird with their long, high pitched, almost mournful calls chilled them to their bones. A primal sense of dread building in each of their hearts as they moved through the darkness. They may have been soldiers, but they were still human and they knew that something beyond their understanding was at work here. Something that was much worse than any enemy with a gun they could ever hope to face.

"Anyone wanna tell me why we're looking for a cooler in the middle of the jungle?" One soldier asked.

"Probably a glitch. Russians said they got a ping from this location," another one said.

"Hey I got a reading, it's right up ahead," said another.

The lights from the helicopters giving them aerial assistance broke through the canopy of the trees above lighting their path as the wind from the blades brought the forest to life all around them. Massive leaves and branches waving about angrily beneath the sudden change in the wind, only to be calmed once it passed by overhead.

"Sparta One this is Hawkeye, we're getting a signal off the transponder, range thirty meters. Looks like you're getting warmer," the chopper pilot said.

As the men kept walking, the beep of the reading increased in volume and frequency. Faster and faster, louder and louder, until at last they came upon what they had been looking for.

"What the hell?" One of them asked.

They all stepped forward and saw a giant object covered in white goop. Sparta One's lead came forward and used his hand to wipe away some of the goop, revealing the radiation warning label beneath. He picked his hand up, watching the goo ooze and fall off of his hand.

"Jesus…" he said quietly.

Another bit of goop fell down from above him, and he looked up while shining his flashlight in the same direction. Up, up, up. Finally, he saw the propeller of a submarine above his head in the trees, and neither he nor his team could believe what they just found.

"Oh my god," he exclaimed.

Just then the chopper lights fell upon them as well. The sub lit up under the lights and showcased the fact that it was all being held in the air by the trees with something moving around next to it. The lights from the choppers didn't quite reach whatever was moving, but they all knew in the backs of their minds what it was.

"Charlie 3, we have located your Russian sub…" He said.

"And you're not gonna believe what else we found," one chopper pilot said.

"Holy shit," the co-pilot whispered.

They shone their lights down just in time to witness the MUTO picking the subs nuclear reactors out and swallowing them. The MUTO dove back into the sub as the chopper pilots looked on in horror at what it was doing and how it could be doing it.

Back on the USS Saratoga, admiral Stenz watched the live thermal feeds from the soldiers and the choppers.

"Seems to be rising… possibly twenty to thirty meters above the tree line. Can't tell how wide it is," the chopper pilot reported.

"Cat's out of the bag doctor, no more secrets. Our highest priority now is safety. There's close to a million people on that island," he told Serizawa.

Serizawa himself bowed his head, saddened, as a scientist, by the prospect of having to destroy the MUTO. But ultimately, it was for the best.

Just then, alarms started blaring through the room.

"We're picking up something else, approaching from the Pacific," said one of the soldiers monitoring the satellite and sonar screens.

Serizawa looked up, turning his head to look at Dr. Graham as he then walked out of the room as the admiral declared that everyone must go to general quarters. Dr. Graham followed Serizawa into the hallways, wondering what he was up to.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"Up to the flight deck, I think he is coming!" Serizawa said.

"What are you doing?"

"I have to see this," Serizawa said, gesturing for her to remain behind as he continued running through the halls.

On the flight deck, as Serizawa made it there, he saw an F-35 and an F-18 being deployed from the runways of the carrier to engage the MUTO. Again, this saddened him, but if the MUTO's destruction protected the lives of all the people on the island and stopped _him_ from coming, then so be it.

Back on the beaches, a luau was taking place and the sight of helicopters flying overhead caught the attention of quite a few of the party goers. They all stopped what they were doing to watch, unsure of why helicopters, let alone military ones, would be flying around here.

A little girl sat in her chair, watching the helicopter as it dropped several men onto the rooftops who all took positions along the edge watching and waiting for something to happen.

On the train, Ford sat quietly with Akio as he heard the sounds of the airplanes flying by. He turned his head to take a look, with Akio turning all the way around and practically plastering his face against the glass to see. His cap was in the way on the first try, so Akio flipped it back so he could get closer to the glass. Ford chuckled slightly at seeing this, but his smile disappeared as he caught sight of the two planes roaring out towards the jungles not far away.

"Two, Charlie 6 we are circling the target. Go on your command… Standby, I got a visual. Bogey at my twelve," said the F-35 pilot.

In the distance he could see the helicopter light shining down towards the jungles with the reflection of the light off the sub as well. The MUTo was moving around as well, taking swipes at the choppers as it was clearly annoyed by their shining lights down on it while it was feeding. The MUTO roared out angrily as it tried to finish its meal, with only the one last core remaining before the roar of the plane engines caught its attention and it dropped the container down towards the soldiers who all dove away to avoid being crushed by it.

"Be advised, preparing to engage target," said the F-18 pilot.

"Guardian 3, we're getting movement down here," said one of the Sparta One team.

The MUTO's right front arm began to alight with a reddish orange glow along the curved hook at the end leading partially up the forearm as it was slowly raised into the air. The MUTO let out another roar and its body tensed, signaling it was about to strike.

"Take cover!" The soldiers yelled.

The MUTO slammed its arm down on the ground releasing an emp blast through the area The first to shut down were the choppers and the lights they were using to keep tabs on the MUTO. The planes came forward and were too late to evade the blast. All of their systems shut down, and their planes went dark.

"I've got no power! I say again I have lost-"

The plane went down, crashing into the ground and sending a shock wave at the soldiers who were in the way. Two of the men were killed instantly by the concussive force of the blast, while others were thrown several feet but survived though they wished they didn't after a few moments.

The explosion lit the skies in the distance as the train continued on ahead. However, the lights went out along the track eventually catching up to the plane and stopping it as well. It lurched to a halt, throwing everyone off balance as Ford caught Akio and held him close to keep him safe as Ford steadied himself against the sudden stop.

"You all right?" He asked, with Akio giving him a nod.

"You give it ten seconds, light's are gonna come back on," he assured the boy.

"It's okay," he said as he held Akio's hand.

Ford himself was a bit perplexed for a moment, but then he remembered that the MUTO used an emp attack. He wondered if that was what it was, or if it was just a malfunction. But then again, with the military here, why would it just be a malfunction. Ford could only hope now that this was the end of it and that if the MUTO was here, it was staying away from him and the boy. He needed to get the boy home, and then he needed to get home himself. The last thing he needed was for the MUTO to stop him.


	10. Chapter 8 - The Wave

_**Chapter 8: The Wave**_

_Date: May 16, 2014_

—

Back on the beaches where the luau was taking place, the little girl from before sat in her chair watching the adults ponder the meaning behind the military helicopters and the troops on the building rooftops. She walked over to her father, holding his hand for a few moments before she happened to hear a strange sound coming from the ocean. She turned around slowly, letting go of her father's hand as she approached the water's edge.

It was receding, and rapidly. Fish which had been schooling close to shore were now stranded on the sands, left behind by the rapidly retreating ocean waters as the girl looked on. It was so surreal that she didn't know what to make of it. The water flowing backwards? That wasn't supposed to happen was it?

"Dad!" She called.

Her father turned to look at her.

"Zooey?" He asked as he started jogging over to her.

"Zooey!… Oh my god!" He exclaimed, picking her up as he too caught sight of the retreating ocean.

Just then the tsunami alarms began going off all across the island.

"Run! Run!" He yelled.

"It's a tsunami!" Another man yelled.

And in that singular moment, all Hell broke loose.

The beaches began clearing of people rapidly as they all scrambled to reach safe distance in time. They couldn't see the wave yet, but they knew it was coming. It usually didn't take long for the wave to follow the ocean's retreat. The beach, which had been nearly filled to capacity for the luau, was empty in seconds and the once pristine and beautiful luau environment had been literally trashed.

"Bravo, bravo. Target spotted offshore two knots due east of your position, could be a second bogey," said one of the choppers which was out to sea for recon.

Back on the flight deck of the USS Saratoga, Serizawa was bracing himself as another chopper took off to prepare for recon and transportation of troops to the island. He had not heard the exchange, as he didn't have a walkie talkie with him, but his eyes still worked and he squinted as he thought he saw something in the distance. Because of how dark it was, he couldn't be certain yet, so he brought his binoculars up and dialed them in to take a closer look at what had caught his eye.

The first thing he saw was one of the helicopters, and its light was shining down towards the water.

As his binoculars were lowered, he saw the ocean being torn apart with waves flying dozens of meters into the air as they were thrown aside by the monstrous spines of Gojira. One spine was on the right, one in the middle, and one on the left. All three rows sliced through the water like giant knives with the ocean waves turning white and flying about as if to escape his wrath. His body was producing a large mound of water surrounding him, and Serizawa redialed in his binoculars to see the whole picture. He saw all three spines in his field of view now, with all three choppers shining lights down on them.

But he realized very quickly he didn't need binoculars to see what was going on anymore. He dropped them to his chest, his eyes wide in both fear and amazement as he saw the massive spines approaching the carrier at an alarming speed. The trail they followed led directly towards the carrier's center, with Serizawa and almost a hundred crewmen on the deck to see what was going on.

Then, at the last moment, the spines disappeared beneath the waves as Gojira submerged completely beneath the vessel. The lights followed him, illuminating his silhouette beneath the sea as he traveled under the carrier. Serizawa and all the crew members ran to the other side of the ship as carefully as they can as the mound of water produced by Gojira's approach caused the ship to list to one side slightly. As they approached the opposite side of the deck, they saw the water rising higher and higher. Gojira almost seemed to surf the wave create as his own body rose up with it leading him to a standing position as the waves broke down around him.

Serizawa was entranced by the sight. He couldn't see Gojira's face, but his head, neck, shoulders, back, and part of his legs were now visible. He'd spent so many years reading his father's notes on Gojira, learning everything he could about him. To see him standing there now nearly brought Serizawa to tears as he watched nature's sword of balance stomp towards the island of Honolulu with only one thing on his mind.

Back on the shore, a dog was tied to a tree and barking wildly towards the ocean. The tsunami warning had reached most sections of the island, but one or two areas had failed to hear them or had foolishly ignored them not believing that it would be a serious event. But oh how wrong they were. The wall of water approaching them was over three stories tall, and the dog's barking was replaced by a single whimper as it turned to run and snapped the leash holding it to the tree.

The wall of water cascaded through the island crushing trees, throwing cars like toys, and tearing through smaller buildings as if they were nothing. The dog continued to sprint away through the streets as fast as its legs could take it, but it was caught up in a crowd of fleeing people thousands strong.

Through the streets the father and his wife and daughter, Zooey, ran as well. The wall of water behind them held Zooey's attention. Her heart was gripped by fear, amazement, and confusion. She didn't know what was going on, nor did she have any idea what a "tsunami" was. But she knew she was afraid of what was happening as she clung to her father. He and his wife ran through the streets before turning to the side and opening the door of a nearby store to hide inside. For a few brief moments as the water rushed passed, they saw the bodies of hundreds of people getting swept away or floating passed having already been drowned or crushed to death by the force of the wave alone. They hid here, hoping beyond hope that it would save them.

But it was not to be.

The glass walls of the store cracked and shattered almost instantly, sending a powerful wave inside which nearly crushed everyone inside to death the moment they were struck by it. The man, his wife, and his daughter Zooey all died in that store along with everyone else who thought that the glass could protect them from what had come. The dog running through the streets was also caught in the wave, along with thousands of people who had been running through the streets and had failed to reach a safe altitude above the waterline. Given that it was nearly three stories in height, almost nowhere was safe anymore save for the buildings which had numerous levels such as the hotels and office buildings.

As the wave traveled through the area, it put out dozens of blocks worth of street lights, killed the power in almost every building it passed, and sent hordes of debris and dead bodies floating along the surface.

As the power went out in one of the hotels, the soldiers who had been dropped to its rooftop sent flares up and into the air to see what was going on. The red lights flew up higher and higher nearly reaching three hundred feet in height before they stopped and began to descend. As they did so, the light caught something massive in its glow. A large figure, bigger than anything anyone had ever seen before, slowly lumbered forward through the darkness.

It was reptilian in appearance with dense and scaly skin. Its chest had a set of rugged plates which almost looked like scar tissue, but they were not exactly biologists so they couldn't be certain. Its shoulders were forward, like those of a theropod, but long enough to pass as human in comparison to the rest of its body. Its belly was fairly large as well as it lead down to a dense pair of legs, though its feet were hidden beneath the water.

Everyone on the rooftop was stunned and standing in silence. The sounds of the wave had been tuned out completely, and all they heard now was a low grumbling sound. The civilians on the roof inched closer to the edge to get a good look at this thing which had appeared, completely entranced by it as it walked forward seemingly without a care in the world.

However the silence was shattered by the sounds of soldiers just above them firing at the creature. Their bullets though had absolutely no effect on it. The people all began screaming at the sounds of gunfire, but the creature only stopped walking which was much more ominous than even the soldiers dared hope for.

The creature's head slowly turned, still partially hidden by the darkness as it stood above the flare light. The sound of a snarl could be heard, and the creature lowered its head towards the rooftop where the soldiers had fired at it.

Slowly, its face came into view. The head overall was circular when looked at straight on. Its brow ridge was low and looked to be almost in a perpetual frown with the scales mimicking a furrowed brow. The nostrils looked very much like those in dinosaur sculptures, being decently large and slanted. The cheeks under the eyes flared out slightly, with the skin beneath the eyes being somewhat folded as if it was indeed frowning. The upper jaw was set and narrow, with the lower jaw having a large set of muscles beneath the skin where the jaw connected to the skull though the front of the lower jaw was a bit smaller. All in all, its mouth was almost avian in appearance though it was unmistakably a reptilian creature. The rest of its head and neck gave it an almost mammalian appearance, like that of a large bear with the broad shoulder line and the dense neck leading into them.

The creature's upper lip was curled and tightened, obviously a snarl and a warning.

The fact that it didn't just attack them was fascinating to some and frightening to others. In the backs of their minds some of the civilians were thinking _"Why doesn't it just kill us?"_ while other thought _"What is it doing?"_

The soldiers watched silently, holding their weapons at the ready. The creature's large yellow eyes peered down at them as if searching their souls. One soldier on the end of the line was a bit shaky. His nerve was being tested to its absolute limit by the creature's snarl and the low grumble that was coming from it. His hands and feet trembled at the sight of it leaning down just a little bit closer, and in that moment he lost himself. The soldier brought up his weapon and shot right into the creature's left eye causing it to flinch back and shut the eye as if a piece of dust had just flown into it.

"What the Hell are you doing?!" One of the soldiers yelled.

That yell, however, was nothing.

The creature's mouth opened and it released a roar at the soldiers on the roof. The pressure wave of the roar alone knocked them off their feet, but the sheer decibel levels released had to be in excess of two hundred and fifty. Everyone in the immediate area, including the other soldiers and civilians on nearby rooftops within about a two block radius instantly went deaf as their eardrums split and shattered inside their skulls. Blood trickled from their ears as they all held their heads in pain. Even though they were deaf, the pain from the roar remained. The threshold of pain for human hearing was only around one hundred and eighteen decibels. The soldiers and civilians writhed on the rooftop as the creature's roar finally came to an end.

The creature continued to snarl at them as they writhed and screamed, and it seemed to only further agitate the monstrous creature as it raised its hand and brought it down hard on the rooftop. The structure instantly crumbled under the force of the attack and the building itself began going down. It didn't stop there though. The creature lifted its other arm and struck it again, making it go down faster and sending other people who were inside flying out of windows and through the breaks in floors down into the waters below before they too were crushed by the debris of the building falling down on them. The creature watched the building go down and growled, turning its head sharply towards other rooftops.

It took a single step towards another building and saw a gathering of people and soldiers there as well. Its upper lip curled up into another snarl and it immediately stepped forward and brought the building down as well. All the people on the roof and inside taking shelter from the raging waters beneath them were sent to a watery grave beneath the creature's feet. It looked around again, taking another step towards the next tallest building it could see. The soldiers and people all dove for the door leading to the stairwell, disappearing just before the creature reached their building. One of the soldiers checked through a small crack in the door as he began to open it just so, and he saw the creature analyzing the roof before turning away. The sounds of its footsteps began to disappear, and the soldiers walked outside to see it waling away towards the airport in the distance.


	11. Chapter 9 - Airport Battle

_**Chapter 9: Airport Battle**_

_Date: May 16, 2014_

—

"Anyone get an eyeball on the bogey?" Asked one of the Sparta One team.

Most of them kept their eyes on the forest, but one turned towards the city and saw a small trail of fires leading towards it. The lights to the city then began coming on everywhere, illuminating the world below them as they heard the faint sound of the MUTO's roar in the distance. They'd already lost it.

Back on the train, the lights began to come back on slowly across the track. Light by light until they reached the train's position and the lights within came on and everyone on board breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"There you go. What'd I tell you?" He said to Akio, who looked at him with half a smile.

The lights along the track ahead turned on one by one, revealing a large mass that seemed to be moving. Ford immediately knew what it was and his eyes widened slightly as the lights then lit up the MUTO for everyone to see. The crowds on the train instantly began to panic, standing up and hustling around trying to find a way off the train but they couldn't get the doors to open as the train moved towards the giant creature.

Just then, the military helicopters flew by and started firing their guns at the MUTO. Ford grabbed hold of Akio, shielding him any possible harm as he yelled to everyone to "Get down!" The choppers continued to fire at the creature, flying by and circling around. However, it was the train which caught the MUTO's attention. Ford watched with dread as the MUTO knelt down and roared at the train. The moving lights had registered to it as a possible threat, and it opened its mouth in an effort to bite the train.

Akio began to scream, and Ford grabbed the boy lifting him off the ground and retreating towards the back as far as he could go before grabbing hold of a rail to prepare for what happened next. The MUTO's mouth clamped down on the train car severing all of what its mouth surrounded away. The track, the car, and all the people caught in that end of the train car ended up in the MUTO's mouth before being swallowed.

The MUTO roared at the helicopters as they came back around trying to shoot at it again, and as it stepped around its leg brushed the broken track. Ford was knocked free of his rail and fell to the train car's floor which was now slanted downwards at a near forty-five degree angle. Several others had already fallen through the broken end of the car to the ground below, most of whom died from falling and landing at bad angles breaking backs, necks, and landing on their heads before breaking them open like watermelons. Ford managed to catch the edge of one of the seats, adjusting his grip as fast as possible to keep himself from suffering the same fate.

At the same time, Akio lost his grip and began sliding down the car as well. Ford saw the boy coming, and despite the best efforts of the other people who tried to help, Akio continued to fall. Ford reached out as Akio slid down beside him, pulling him in close and preventing him from falling out the end. Ford looked up and saw that another person was sliding down as well, but this was an adult male almost Ford's size. Ford didn't have anymore hands to help this man, but he did have both legs. Ford braced himself against the seats with one foot and kicked out his other to catch the man and give him a moment to grab hold of one of the seats himself, stopping him from falling to his death out of the end of the car.

Ford was beginning to wear down. Holding onto Akio and trying to hold his own weight as well against the gravity pulling him down was very difficult. His hand was beginning to slip, but for Ford there was still one more thing he could do. With all of his might, he shifted his hand so that he was gripping the back of Akio's shirt behind the neck, and pushed him up until Akio was able to grab the rails of the seats and haul himself into a seated position on top of them. With Akio safe, Ford pulled himself up as well. Once he was situated and ready, Ford looked to the other members in the car who were hanging on for dear life.

Outside, the MUTO was stomping through the airport. Now that the train was no longer an issue, it walked right through the tracks and towards the main runways. The planes parked in its way were no obstacle, but it seemed to avoid them all the same.

One of the airport workers who drove the cars which hauled luggage to the belly of the planes hid underneath a passenger airliner next to the front wheels as the ground suddenly became moist as a small wave of water flowed over and passed his feet. He looked down, looking back to where the water had come from and his mouth about hit the ground. A few other workers as well were hiding nearby, but their attention was focused on the MUTO as it continued its tromp through the airport.

"Roger. Target in sight. 2 O'clock. 300 Meters," said the co-pilot.

"Target confirmed," said the pilot.

The chopper began opening fire on the MUTO below as they drew in closer, but the pilot veered away when a large row of spines rose up nearly causing them to crash.

"Jesus!" The pilot yelled.

As they came back around, the chopper ended up losing control and the pilot was unable to veer away from the MUTO as the chopper crashed into its wing. The chopper then flew down in flames towards the ground, its fuel tank having been ruptured and had been ignited by a spark caused by the scraping metal. It came down hard to the ground before crashing into the rear end of a passenger airliner. The chopper hit the ground momentarily after and exploded, causing the plane to explode as well. The explosion of the first place caused a second to catch fire when its fuel caught the flames and the front half of the plane flew end over end.

People inside the terminal watched the chaos unfold outside and were screaming in fear. They knew they were safe inside for the moment, but if that thing came their way then it would all be over. As the second plane exploded and began flipping down the way to their right, the people's attention was suddenly caught by the sight of a giant foot nearly sixty feet long striking the ground with a tremendous thud. The people all went silent. All words, screams, and even thoughts halted in that singular moment of awe and fear.

The MUTO looked up and over towards the sound of the footprint, and flared its wings as it let out a roar of fury. However, the MUTO had failed to realize that the source of the sound was not just from the feet. The MUTO's eyes trailed up higher and higher along the length of the legs, the stomach, the chest, the neck, and finally the head of the monster before it. A large reptilian creature unlike any it had ever seen before stood there staring it down.

The two monsters watched each other in silence for a moment, each one sizing the other up. The much larger creature glared down at its smaller foe with a curled lip and a low growl emanating from its gullet. The MUTO stared up in awe at its opponent, but the awe was very quickly replaced thereafter by a surge of anger and aggression. The MUTO's wings flared again, and it released another roar towards its larger opponent. The larger creature's upper and lower lips both flared back exposing all of its teeth as it puffed out its chest and unleashed a deafening roar which shook the very Earth upon which it stood.

Inside the train car, Ford's ears rang as the roar reached them. His head turned very slowly towards the windows of the car, and outside he could see the form of Serizawa's Gojira creature facing down the MUTO as the smaller monster leaped into the air to begin the fight. Ford looked to Akio and the others on the train. All of them had heard the roar and were covering their ears and looked to be almost in pain. The ground began to shake, and the train car began to slide down the edge of the tracks even further. Ford looked over towards Gojira again, and every time he took a step in his battle the train slid further and further down.

Ford looked up and grabbed hold of Akio, climbing up higher and higher until he reached the car door. He kicked at it as hard as he could, slamming the door with his boot until the glass shattered. He rolled his hand back into his jacket sleeve and used it to try and smoothen the edges as much as possible so that Akio could climb out without slicing his hands open. He set Akio down outside the door on the edge of the tracks, telling him to go back towards the rest of the train to make room for the others. One by one, Ford began helping the passengers off the train before he himself received aid from others who had done the same thing on other cars. Ford climbed out of the train just in time before it went over the edge, and all the people who had been on the train managed to escape and now stood on the tracks watching the fight.

Ford didn't want to stick around though, at least not at this range, so he grabbed Akio and made a break along the tracks for the nearest point along them where he could climb down to the ground via a maintenance ladder where he and Akio ran to a safe distance. The other people weren't far behind, having evaded the tracks as well for fear of them being damaged again if the monsters made their way over here.

The monsters, in the meantime, were now fully engaged in battle.

Gojira let out a roar as the MUTO lunged forward from the ground with a massive flap of its wings. The MUTo managed to slip passed Gojira's jaws as he snapped at it and used its front two claw arms to latch onto Gojira's shoulders and pushed itself up and passed his head. Pushing down for all its worth, the MUTO managed to shove Gojira down and use his back as a launch pad to fly up into the air and circle around to attack again. Gojira managed to stay on his feet when the MUTO shoved him down, but as the MUTO came back around and used its arms to bash him on the back of the head he was pushed forward and fell to the ground onto his stomach.

Gojira landed hard, his jaw hitting the ground and his hands failing to catch him on his way down. The Earth below him shook violently as 90,000 tons of reptile hit the floor and the MUTO flew by overhead. The people who had escaped the train, Ford and Akio included, were a good distance away but when Gojira hit the ground they all ended up losing their balance and falling down to the ground. Ford sat up and looked back to the airport where he saw Gojira trying to right himself as the MUTO came down on him and started jabbing its claw hands into his side to keep him down. Ford watched its movements as it continually jabbed at Gojira, and he noted the way it attacked and counted the attacks almost like a musician does the underlying beat in a song.

"Come on Go-… Whatever. Time the hits. It's not exactly hiding its attack pattern," Ford whispered.

The hits came one at a time in two-second intervals and were aimed at his side just below his shoulders. It was a spot of imbalance for Gojira due to how bottom heavy he was, and prevented him from getting to a point where he could push himself up. Every time his arms found their way to the ground to push him up, the blow from the MUTO caused his hands to slip under him which kept him down. However, Gojira was indeed counting the hits and timing them, as it waited until the last second when another attack was coming before he used his tail as a ground to force his body sideways. The MUTO's next attack missed its target, instead landing on the edge of Gojira's back near his spines as he rolled to his side. The MUTO was pulled downward due to its attack causing its arms to slip, almost as if hugging Gojira.

The MUTO looked down, and its face was mere yards from Gojira's own who was snarling at it with all his teeth bared. The MUTO was frozen, as was Gojira, but one of them was about to get a taste of their own medicine.

Gojira leaned forward and bit the MUTO on the shoulder, pulling it down to the ground with him before rolling forward onto his stomach. The MUTO was pulled partially under his body with its legs being flattened under his stomach causing the MUTO excruciating pain. It let out a roar of agony as Gojira clamped down with his jaws even harder, but the minor victory didn't last long. The MUTO's flailing arms managed to get in a lucky shot and struck Gojira in the left eye. His jaws opened and he let out a roar of pain of his own as the MUTO started whacking at his face and throat to try and get him to roll the other way to free itself. The tactic worked, as Gojira rolled back which freed the MUTO's legs and allowed it to limp away and gain some distance.

Gojira, in the meantime, rolled back to his stomach with his right arm reaching up to his face and covering his eye. The MUTO managed to prop itself up and made it to its feet. Its legs hurt like crazy, but they were still in tact which was quite the remarkable feat. The MUTO looked over at Gojira as he writhed in pain on the ground before it, and slowly walked over towards him growling and grumbling at every step. The MUTO drew closer, with its front arms slamming into the ground in preparation for another round of beating. However, before the MUTO could begin its new round of attacks, its legs were swept out from under it by Gojira's tail which whipped around with surprising speed and force. The MUTO went down onto its back and wings as Gojira's head came up.

His left eye was closed and blood oozed out of the corners, but otherwise Gojira was still in this fight. He slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and made it to his feet, but the MUTO had also made it to its feet and was ready to fight as well. Ford watched the entire affair with Akio glued to his side holding his hand, but the others had long since abandoned them. Ford was starting to see why Serizawa was so enamored with Gojira. Though he was a monster, and represented what Ford believed to be a massive threat to the world, he was quite fascinating to watch.

The subtle facial expressions before the MUTO's attacks indicated his mind hard at work planning a counter. The way he positioned his body and used all of it as a weapon whenever possible suggested an extreme level of complex thought and comprehension of spacial awareness coupled with hand-eye coordination. It was rather impressive. The MUTO too seemed to have a similar level of intellect, but it was a toss up as to which of them was smarter though Ford was leaning towards Gojira. Despite taking a stab to the eye and losing the use of it, he had managed to fight the pain and set the MUTO up for a successful attack and give himself time to make it to his feet.

"Come on big guy…" Ford whispered.

Akio looked up at Ford, tugging on his hand. Ford looked down at the child, who looked at him, then to the monsters, and then back to Ford.

"Don't worry kid," he said, looking back to the fight and remembering Serizawa's words about this thing being nature's power to restore balance.

"But to be clear, we're rooting for the big one."

Akio nodded, looking to the fight as well as the monsters re-engaged.

The MUTO flew back towards Gojira and the two interlocked in battle. Gojira grabbed the MUTO's wings and pushed it back several paces before the MUTO managed to use its front claws to latch onto Gojira's shoulder and pull itself forward to bite him on the mouth. Gojira let out a stifled roar of pain as his mouth was clamped shut by the MUTO's own as the front of the beak-like mouth cut into the top of his nose causing trickles of blood to ooze down his scaly skin. Gojira let go of the MUTO's wings to try and pry its mouth open, but that left the other arms and wings free to bombard him with attacks which he couldn't possibly defend against.

Gojira stepped left, then right, trying to swing the MUTO loose but that just caused the beak to cut in deeper. To correct his mistake, Gojira stood still allowing the MUTO to pummel him with the arms and wings. For a moment, he didn't move an inch until at last he brought his hands up and used both to grab the MUTO's lower jaw. He pulled down, and his arm strength versus the MUTO's jaw strength… Well, it was no contest. Gojira pulled its lower jaw down and managed to twist his head to one side and force the MUTO's upper jaw to release his nose. It left a mild scrape which continued to ooze blood, but he was free. The downside to this was that the MUTO's jaw clamped down on his claws, causing Gojira to let out another roar of pain.

The MUTO's jaws cut deep into the flesh of his claws and Gojira flailed his arms wildly trying to get it to let go. His roar had also gotten higher in pitch in response to pain, and Ford noticed that this time it was more intense for Gojira as he was forgetting about thinking things through and causing the MUTO's jaws to scrape more flesh away revealing small amounts of bone. Finally, Gojira managed to slam his jaw shut and block the pain long enough to hold still and bite down on the MUTO's neck. The creature's jaws opened, freeing Gojira's hands but leaving his body open to further attacks as the MUTO jabbed and stabbed at his stomach and neck in an attempt to make him let go. One of the final stabs seemed to be in the right place on his lower abdominal area on the left side as Gojira's mouth opened to let it go.

The two monsters backed away from each other for a few seconds as they both reeled from the back and forth onslaught they'd given each other.

Back on the USS Saratoga in the planning room, Serizawa, Graham, and admiral Stenz watched the live feeds of the choppers which were still in the area watching the fight from a distance. The back and forth action between the monsters was almost excruciating to watch, thinking about how much pain they must be enduring.

"Dr. Serizawa," Stenz began.

Serizawa didn't break his eyes away from the screens, but turned his head a little towards Stenz to show he was listening.

"Is this the alpha predator you spoke about before?" He asked.

Serizawa nodded.

"He doesn't seem to be doing too well," Stenz added.

"Give him time. He's clearly stronger than the MUTO. He can defeat it," Graham pleaded.

"I'm sorry Dr. Graham, but this has already gotten out of hand… We all know that planes and missiles won't work, which leaves us with one option," he said.

Serizawa finally broke away from the screens and looked at the admiral with wide eyes.

"You can't be serious," Serizawa exclaimed.

The admiral tilted his head.

"Admiral, just give him some time. This will be over soon," Serizawa assured him.

Stenz took a breath, letting it out on a frustrated sigh through his nose. His hands found their way to his hips, and he looked at Serizawa for a moment before giving him a nod. Serizawa and Graham both breathed a collected sigh of relief, but their attention was brought back to the screens when the high pitched screech of Gojira roaring in pain overtook their ears. They all glued their eyes to the screens in time to see that the MUTO had managed to latch onto his back to avoid his arms and mouth while drilling its claws into his neck. The cries of pain were unusual, but upon closer inspection Serizawa saw something alarming.

"Can you enhance that screen?" He asked the admiral, pointing to the screen which showed Gojira from the side view with the MUTO on his back.

"Johns," Stenz said.

"Yes, sir!"

It took a moment, but the image on the screen was enhanced and dialed in for Serizawa to take a closer look.

The MUTO's claw had found its way into a set of large scales along Gojira's neck, which Gojira was fighting frantically to free it from. Serizawa and Graham looked closer, and the "scales" were not scales at all. They were gills. Flaps of flesh with edges of folded skin where folded processes of flesh similar to those found in the gills of fish resided. It was no wonder it caused him so much pain to have the MUTO's claw find its way in-between them. It also answered the question of how and why he was able to live underwater for so long. Serizawa had wondered about that for quite some time, and although he'd speculated on gills or some other internal underwater respiratory system, he had never confirmed it before now.

Back in the airport, Gojira was still struggling to get the MUTO off his gills. The creature's claw was embedded in between them and it was not letting go anytime soon. Gojira turned this way and that in a desperate attempt to get the MUTO off of him and get the claw out of his neck where blood began pouring like a small river from the area where the claw was. Gojira's roars of pain cut through the air like a razor, and cut through the hearts of both Graham and Serizawa as they listened to the audio from the helicopters live feeds.

Gojira managed to reach up and grip the MUTO claw, but as he tried to pull it free he only worsened the bleeding before he pushed the claw back in. Ford lowered his head slightly but his eyes remained on Gojira. Gojira's eyes were flickering again, and Ford was beginning to understand him in the regard that he could see the wheels turning in Gojira's head. Gojira finally stopped flailing long enough to get a solid grip on the MUTO's claw and turned it sideways sliding it out of his gill with little to no further damage before pulling it down as hard as he could and throwing the MUTO to the ground. Blood still poured from his neck down his chest and to the ground, but he was free of the MUTO's claws now and the MUTO was now at a serious disadvantage.

Gojira lifted his left foot and stomped down hard on the MUTO's chest, causing it to let out a cry of pain which very quickly was cut off by the fact that it had no air left in its lungs. Gojira lifted up and stomped again, this time harder. On his third attempt, the MUTO's arm began glowing and it slammed it down on the ground sending out another emp attack. The strike didn't cause any damage to Gojira, but it was enough to stun him temporarily and cause his stomp to miss its target. The MUTO rolled to the side using its wings and made it to its feet, seeming to cough trying to get its breath back as Gojira gave chase. The MUTO jogged forward a few times and jumped into the air. After a few flaps of its wings, it was fully airborne and headed towards the ocean.

It was done fighting, and it needed to get away.

Akio looked up at Ford, tugging his hand again as Ford looked down at him.

"Yeah kid… He won," Ford said quietly, looking back at Gojira as he chased down the MUTO.

Gojira continued to give chase, stumbling a few times on the way as it chased the MUTO to the water's edge. Gojira waded in about waist deep and leaned down to start swimming after the MUTO, but surfaced within moments of putting his neck below the water. He came back up and tossed his head left and right, twisting it and turning it like a dog which just got wet. Gojira began letting out gurgling sounds as water and blood poured out of his neck, and on the Saratoga Drs. Serizawa and Graham analyzed the footage closely as admiral Stenz looked on rather confused.

"What's he doing?" The admiral asked.

"Well, it looks like he's… choking," Graham said quietly.

Serizawa nodded.

"The damage to his gills has left him momentarily unable to breathe properly underwater, like a runner with asthma… He'll be fine," Serizawa affirmed.

""Fine, sensei?"" Graham asked.

Serizawa nodded again.

"Look," he said quietly.

She looked back to the screen, along with Stenz.

Gojira shook his head for one last time and the blood pouring out from his gills came to a stop. Also, as the chopper came around to see Gojira's face, his left eye was beginning to open up. Gojira forced his eye to open and blinked it a few times, clearing the blood from it as well as he let out a low growl and snarled looking back out at the direction the MUTO had gone. The vile creature was still visible out to sea ahead, and Gojira's eyes narrowed in anger as his chest puffed up with him taking in a deep breath. He lurched forward, giving one last roar of fury and challenge at the MUTO before leaning down and disappearing beneath the waves.


	12. Chapter 10 - A Very Big Problem

_**Chapter 10: A Very Big Problem**_

_Date: May 16, 2014_

—

Back at the Brody household, Sam was asleep on the couch. He had stayed up a bit later than usual watching cartoons since his mother had to work late at her job as a nurse at the local hospital. He was awoken by the sound of a breaking news bulletin on the television, and slowly opened his eyes and watched the screen. As he did so, his mother walked through the kitchen area drying her hands after having finished washing the dishes.

"Sam, please turn that TV off," she asked.

On the television, KYPN News reported that Honolulu had been devastated. Short snippets of the fight between Gojira and the MUTO were displayed as the moving text read "highest state of alert… west coast hospitals prepare for potential-" before being lost on Sam as he sat up and looked away from the screen.

"Hey, did you hear me? Off!" Elle ordered.

Sam continued to watch the screen as it showed Gojira chasing the MUTO towards the ocean, with the moving text displaying, "Thousands are feared dead in Honolulu… USS Saratoga is deployed in-"

"Come on Sammy. Let's go," Elle said.

"Let's go, it's bed time."

She walked to the corner of the hallway, looking back towards Sam.

"Sammy!" She said again.

He looked over his shoulder at her, pointing at the TV screen.

"Mommy, look! Dinosaurs!" He said happily.

Elle looked to the screen and saw the clips being played, and her face slowly changed into one of confusion and disbelief.

—

_Date: May 17, 2014_

—

Meanwhile, back in Honolulu, Ford and Akio walked silently through what was left of the streets as they made their way towards a "Lost Persons" booth.

Akio looked around, and saw the level of devastation left by the passing of both the tsunami and of the monsters themselves both before and after their conflict.

The streets, what was left of them anyway, were filled with debris. Building walls and rooftops destroyed by Gojira's passing as his tremendous body brushed against them on his way to the airport. Cars, trees, telephone poles and wires, chairs, tables, human bodies, drowned dogs and cats from the tsunami. All kinds of things were scattered about in the wake of the destruction wrought by the two monsters during the previous night. Sea birds flew about overhead to take advantage of the bounty of spilled food items which were also strewn throughout the streets. Hundreds of people were scurrying about trying to find lost loved ones and friends, or just trying to find a way out of the devastated zone.

Police and the fire fighting forces were everywhere trying to dig out people who were alive and trapped in the debris as well as helping to load up wounded survivors into emergency vehicles. As Akio looked about, the thought of his own parents being among the dead or wounded crossed his mind and he started to worry for them. He held Ford's hand as they came up to the "Lost Persons" booth, and looked up as Ford started talking to the people at the table.

"Excuse me? Hi, excuse me, I'm sorry," Ford said as he addressed the people behind the table.

"This boy's been separated from his parents," he said.

"Just fill out this form, we'll be with you in just a moment," the woman talking to a local paramedic replied.

Akio was disappointed with their answer, and turned away as Ford continued to speak to them trying to get them to help immediately. As he turned away, he saw a flash of a familiar face a distance away and so he started making his way over to it. He had to weave through the crowds and push his way passed other people going in the opposite direction to find lost persons of their own.

"Hey, do you have service on that cell sir?" Ford asked a man next to him.

"No, the pay phones don't even work," the man replied.

Ford sighed in frustration as he looked down to the form, and he noticed that Akio was gone. He turned around and started scanning the crowds for Akio's red shirt and blue cap, but he didn't see it. He set the form down on the table and started moving through the crowds, giving Akio a call or two as he kept searching for the boy. Finally, after a minute of searching, he happened to spot the little boy's red shirt through the crowd and he pushed his way towards the boy.

"Momma!" Akio called.

Akio's mother and father were both still alive, and they seemed in good health despite the chaos of last night. They both knelt down and embraced their son tightly, relieved beyond words to have their baby boy back in their arms again. After last night's nightmare, the fear in their hearts for his safety and health had nearly brought them to sheer and absolute panic. To hold their little boy again was the greatest and most satisfying feeling in the world for the couple as they picked him up and carried him happily away to go home.

Akio looked over at Ford, spotting him over the crowd as he smiled and waved to the soldier who helped him. Ford smiled and waved back to the boy, putting his hand down as the thought of his own wife and son came back to haunt him. He'd missed his flight, and was now stuck in a war zone previously occupied by two giant monsters. He could only imagine how Elle was taking this as knew the news would be all over this incident. He could imagine Sam thinking it was amazing, as the four year old was still too young to comprehend the danger of Gojira's appearance as well as that of the MUTO. To a four year old, seeing monsters on TV was nothing out of the ordinary. He could practically hear it now, "Mommy, look! Dinosaurs!"

Ford knew it was exactly what Sam would say, and the thought brought a hint of a smile to his face.

At that moment, he happened to hear something familiar to him.

"Corporal, load up! Load up!"

Military forces had arrived and were mobilizing, preparing to move out for a new destination. As Ford turned around he saw two rows of soldiers heading his way with a man he identified by his uniform and position as a sergeant.

"Sergeant! Lieutenant Ford Brody, US Navy. Listen, I need your help. I'm trying to get to the mainland," Ford said.

"Well it's your lucky day sir. Everything not tied down is moving east."

"Whoa, whoa. Is that where they're headed?"

"Yeah. I guess we're monster hunters now," the sergeant responded as he turned and ran back to his spot in line.

East…

That was towards the US west coast where Ford's family was. He looked up and saw a pair of helicopters heading out to sea beyond the booths set up for "Lost Persons," and he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He caught up to the sergeant again and had him call over his CO to have a conversation with him. After a few minutes of discussion, Ford managed to convince them to take him along for the ride which filled his heart with relief that he was finally heading home.

Meanwhile, out to sea in the Pacific the USS Saratoga and a few other US Navy vessels were traveling along Godzilla's wake. The giant creature was swimming steadily, his tail undulating back and forth behind him as the rest of his body remained largely straight. From the air, a few helicopters followed and the pilots looked down to see the monstrous creature below and they whistled to one another.

"How long is this thing?" The co-pilot asked.

The pilot looked down, taking note that Gojira's tail alone looked to be nearly the full length of the Saratoga plus an extra half length as well which put the tail at just about five hundred and fifty feet long by itself. Gojira's body was around three hundred and fifty or so from the tip of his nose to the bottom of his feet, and adding the two together in his head the pilot estimated Gojira at around nine hundred feet in length from nose to tail.

"That thing is about nine hundred feet long, give or take a couple dozen feet," the pilot confirmed.

"Holy shit…" The co-pilot responded.

The pilot only nodded.

"That's one big lizard," the co-pilot said again.

The pilot nodded again, looking ahead to continue the flight.

Inside the planning room the admiral, captain, and their crew were all gathered around the monitors watching as the displays as they were informed of the details thus far about the creature's whereabouts and intended direction.

"Satellite transfer complete… Simulations uploaded… Satellite tracking continues. Last satellite tracks predict the MUTO continuing due east. All of our models have the targets converging on the Pacific coast. As of now, it looks like Gojira is still following the MUTO."

"He's hunting," Serizawa said as he entered the room.

Admiral Stenz looked to Serizawa, then back to the screens.

"Have all vessels maintain distance from target, and plot the speed and heading of these things. I want to exactly when and where they're going to make landfall," Stenz ordered.

"Yes, sir," The captain responded.

"Doctor, what did you mean by hunting?"

Serizawa made a gesture with his hand, as if he wanted to say something but he could not.

"You think it's chasing this MUTO?" Stenz asked again.

"But if the MUTO is his prey, this print out shows a call. Why call out the predator?" Dr. Graham asked.

"No, it didn't. I think Gojira was only listening. The MUTO was calling something else," Serizawa answered as his eyes moved away while he began sifting through recent information and readings.

Serizawa turned his head and looked at the admiral, who was watching him intently waiting for a more solid answer. Serizawa then looked forward again as he came to a realization, and it was one which horrified him.

"The pattern…" he whispered.

"Focus the search on Nevada!" Serizawa ordered.

"Nevada? Why would it go to Nevada?" The captain asked.

"It can't be, it's impossible!" Graham countered.

"What's impossible?" Stenz asked.

"There was another spore, in tact, found in the Philippine mine… But we've run every test on it for years. You confirmed it for yourself, it was dormant!" She said frantically.

"Maybe not anymore," Serizawa responded.

"This spore. Where is it now doctor?" The captain asked.

"It was highly radioactive. It was disposed of. The Americans they, they took it!" Graham said, still in a mild panic.

"Doctor, where is it?" Stenz asked Serizawa.

"Where you put all your nuclear waste," Serizawa answered.

Several hours later a military convoy was dispatched to Nevada with protective gear and weaponry. Two military truce and three assault jeeps accompanied by two attack helicopters made their way Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in the mountains of Nevada. Once inside the repository, the men all jumped out and formed up to check the facility for signs of the other MUTO. They ran through the halls checking each room via the sliding window cover, calling "Clear!" when they didn't find anything.

Finally, at vault 3-3280, when the cover was removed a bright light shone through the glass.

"Hey!" The soldier at the vault called.

All at once, the soldiers turned in unison to face the call with their weapons brought up to the ready as they all inched closer to the vault. The door was opened slowly, and as they moved through the opening they found the entire mountainside torn and bashed out from the inside leaving a gaping hole in the mountain. The helicopters circled by overhead, checking the devastation left behind which looked fairly fresh. It seemed to be not but an hour old at best.

The soldiers removed their masks and walked to the edge of the broken floor and brought up their binoculars to check the direction which several drag marks in the ground seemed to be leading. As the binoculars came up, the sight of Las Vegas in the distance crossed the FOV before one of the soldiers panned right and saw a giant thing walking through the desert. It was kicking up a lot of dust, but it was definitely what they had come to find.

"Out there!" He called out.

The soldiers checking their binoculars checked his direction, and all turned to look where he had pointed.

"Whoa…" One soldier whispered.

"That thing is huge!" Another called out.

The CO of the group picked up his radio.

"Get me admiral Stenz of the USS Saratoga," he said.

"Roger that, what is your situation?"

"We have a very big problem," he responded.

Over in Las Vegas a few minutes alter, citizens were enjoying their time in one of the many casinos as a news broadcast of the MUTO approaching their positions flashed on the screen. However, nobody saw the broadcast as they were too engrossed in their gambling to care. When the power suddenly went out, everyone groaned and moaned about the power going out even though none of them had gotten lucky today. But then, a few seconds later the ceiling was ripped away and everyone started screaming and panicking as the horrific sound of he MUTO's roar split their ears.

From one of the hotels nearby, firemen were calling through a door to the people they'd hoped were inside before breaking down the door. As they entered the room, they heard the speakers playing an old Elvis tune, "You're the Devil in disguise." As they entered the room and looked ahead, they saw part of the hotel wall broken away and walked over to check things out. As they came up to the opening, they saw Las Vegas spread out before them with dozens of broken and damaged buildings still smoking with dust everywhere as a few helicopters flew by chasing something massive in the distance which was trudging away at a leisurely pace.

Back in the Pacific on Gojira's trail, the USS Saratoga received the call from Vegas.

"Sir, our UAV's have footage of the new MUTO," one soldier said.

"Let's have a look at it," Stenz replied.

"Yes, sir," the soldier replied.

The monitors were then overtaken by one united feed from Vegas showing footage of the MUTO tromping through the city.

"This is from five minutes ago," the soldier said again.

"Oh my god," Stenz whispered.

Stenz and the captain shared a glance, both astonished at the MUTO's size and apparent aggressiveness.

"Playing all we have now," the soldier said again.

"It's almost three hundred feet," Graham said to Serizawa.

"It's far bigger than the other one," she continued.

"This one doesn't have any wings," Stenz commented.

"… A different sex?" Graham offered as a thought.

Serizawa nodded.

"A female," he said quietly.

"That's who he's been talking to," Graham said.

Stenz looked away from the two MUTO's and their displayed information on the screens to pay attention to Serizawa and Graham's conversation.

"It must be a mating call. The female remained dormant until the male matured," Serizawa said.

"And now they're seeking radiation, to reproduce," Graham concluded.

A few minutes later and they were in the war room listening to a plan put together by a representative of the US military.

"Current tracking models indicate that all three targets are converging here, San Francisco Bay. But if we rig a nuclear warhead with a shielded timer, put it on a boat and send it twenty miles out, the radiation lures the MUTO's, and the MUTO's lure Gojira."

"Then we detonate with minimal fallout risk to the city," the captain continued.

"You can't be serious," Graham interrupted.

"They feed on radiation," she continued.

"Correct. That's why we use the bomb as bait," the captain countered.

"And kill them, with the sheer force of the blast," the representative added.

Graham sighed.

"This is crazy," she whispered.

"Doctor, if you have any other ideas I am all ears," Stenz said.

"Admiral," Serizawa began.

"Yes, doctor?" Stenz asked.

"Gojira may be the answer. I believe he is here to restore balance. He can defeat them."

"Then what? We just stand by and watch? I'm sorry doctor. I can't take that risk. We'll need to prep the warheads and get them moving to the coast."

"Yes, sir," the captain said.

The men at the table all gathered their documents and other items and left the room. Stenz stared at Graham, wondering if she was going to continue arguing against this course of action but she didn't speak. She only let out an exasperated sigh and turned away in frustration before leaving the room.

"Doctor, I know you don't agree with this. But my first priority is to safeguard our citizens."

Serizawa remained silent before handing Stenz the watch he always carried with him. After taking it and examining it briefly, Stenz remarked that it had stopped.

"Yes… 8:15 in the morning, August 6, 1945," Serizawa said quietly.

"Hiroshima," Stenz replied.

"It was my father's," Serizawa said before closing the watch.

"He was on the team that dropped the nuclear warhead on Gojira in 1954. He noted that the bomb caused serious burns to Gojira's flesh and seemed to break some of the bones in his body, but otherwise did nothing to stop him. Gojira walked away from the Castle Bravo nuclear detonation, a fifteen Megaton explosion… If you detonate this bomb in front of Gojira, I find it unlikely the outcome will be much different. You may wound Gojira, but the chances of you killing him are not very strong."

Stenz was silent, taking in the information Serizawa was sharing before taking in a breath and letting it out on a sigh through his nose.

"Doctor, a fifteen Megaton blast is powerful, but compared to a modern nuclear warhead it's nothing but a firecracker. Today's modern nuclear warheads have unfathomable potential, and are estimated to yield up to and exceeding sixty Megatons. If a fifteen Megaton blast wounded Gojira that badly, then I believe a sixty Megaton blast will most definitely destroy him. Since the MUTO's are smaller and their bodies less durable by design according to your own examination and documentation, I have no doubt they will die along with him."

Serizawa sighed, nodding in defeat before turning to leave the room.

Stenz remained behind, wondering if his logic would hold true against the three monsters when the plan was carried out. Surely if Castle Bravo wasn't enough, but caused grievous injury to Gojira, then a modern nuke had to be strong enough to stop him. It had to be. The difference in power between Castle Bravo and modern nuclear warheads was almost laughable. Surely there'd be no way Gojira or the MUTO's could survive such a blast. Could they?

He shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose and rubbing his temples to try and relieve the stress he was under from Washington to get rid of these things.


	13. Chapter 11 - Promise

_**Chapter 11: Promise**_

_Date: May 18, 2014_

—

Two military transport planes roared through the air on their way to their destination. Ford sat inside deep in thought about all that had happened recently. First it was the incident with his father at Janjira when the first MUTO escaped. The last Ford had heard of him he'd been airlifted to a hospital in Hawaii while Ford made his way to the airport. But after Gojira arrived Ford hadn't heard of him since. To say he was worried about his father's health and safety was an understatement, but even more so he was worried about Elle and Sam. He had no doubt they'd seen the news reports about the attack in Hawaii, and Elle had always been the emotional type. He was brought out of his thoughts, however, when one of the other soldiers came around the corner from the upper level.

"All right, head's up! We got a new destination and new orders, let's get geared up!"

"Hey sergeant! What's the word?" Ford asked him.

"Another one of those things popped up in Nevada sir."

Ford was silent, wondering how this new monster differed from the first. He looked to sergeant Morales for a moment, who gave him something of a "just roll with it" look. Ford took a breath and turned around, searching for his things as the plane began a turn towards their new destination.

A few hours later, in Lone Pine, California, Ford was loaded up in a military truck with sergeant Morales and others as they headed out to prepare to intercept the monsters. The city itself was overrun with military personnel and vehicles blocking off several streets to civilians. Rows of soldiers marched through the streets with others pouring over supplies and transports loading and unloading as they went about their business.

The truck finally came to a stop, with a few soldiers helping drop the back to let Ford and the others out.

"Okay, everybody out!" They ordered.

Ford hopped out of the truck and took a look around. After taking in his surroundings, he took notice of the fact that a train with a nuclear warhead was coming in. Ford's mouth dropped slightly but no sound came out of it. Now they were using nukes? He hadn't heard about that one yet, but it was a most unwelcome development. The last thing Ford or his family needed was a nuke involved in an already gargantuan mess.

"All right, listen up! This train and these weapons are headed to San Francisco! Anyone not part of this mission disembark, now!"

Ford immediately saw the opportunity to return to his family if he rode with the train, but he couldn't just jump aboard or he'd be in a world of trouble. Insubordination didn't go over well with most higher ups. He turned around and walked into the nearest building being used as a planning room and found the highest ranking officer he could to try and convince them to let him on board.

"Negative, I can't do it sir! This is a high risk mission and that train out there is a national asset. Not Amtrak. Are we good to go?" He asked one of the others.

"Yes, sir," the soldier responded.

"From the look on those casings on those minute man ICBM's, I'm guessing the digital module's been bypassed and you're prepping for full analogue retrofit."

"Is my jaw supposed to drop? I get it, you're EOD. But I already got my crew and they know what they're doing."

"And we're pointing it at the monsters, right sarge?" Morales asked.

The master sergeant gave him a pat on the shoulder with his clipboard as an affirmative response.

Ford was unimpressed, and came forward.

"When was the last time you let one of your guys put their fingers in a live bomb?"

The master sergeant's face told of his inner worries for an instant, and Ford took advantage of it as best he could.

"Look, this is what I do. This is my job," Ford declared.

The master sergeant turned away, frustrated and fighting his own conscience against what Ford was asking of him.

"Master sergeant!" Ford called.

The man turned around, giving Ford one of those "drop it" glares.

"Look, my family's in the city. Okay? I need to get on that train," Ford continued.

Back in San Francisco, Ford's son Sam was sitting on a chair in the waiting room of the hospital where his mother worked as a nurse. He was watching the television as it showed the headline "America Under Attack," and was still rather upset that his father hand't made it back home quickly like he had said he would.

_"And you jus heard the US spokesperson say the US has not ruled out nuclear force…"_

Sam turned his head from the television as Elle's coworker, Laura, told him that she would be right back before answering the ringing telephone on the front desk.

"Emergency? Can I help you?" Laura asked.

"Hello?" She asked again, as the other end was quiet at first.

"… Oh yeah, just sec." She said, turning the other way to look for Elle.

As it happened, she was wheeling a patient by with another coworker when Laura told her that it was for her.

"Well tell them I'll be there in a minute," Elle responded.

"Elle, it's your husband." Laura insisted.

Elle walked briskly to the nearest phone in a more quiet area than the waiting room and quickly picked it up while opening the line to Ford's hold.

"Hello?" She said, nearly in tears.

"Elle?" Ford said.

"Ford?" She said softly, trying to hold her tears back.

"You all right?" Ford asked.

"You know I've been trying, I've been calling you everywhere. Are you okay?" She asked frantically.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine."

"I've got, I've got Sam with me and…" She said.

"Great, cause I was thinking that I wanna-" Ford responded, but cut off by Elle.

"I can't believe this is happening," she said holding her forehead.

"Ford. Are you okay? Are you doing okay?" She asked again.

"I'm okay, Elle. Elle, calm down."

"I've been trying but I-I can't. I can't calm down."

"Breathe baby. Just breathe a moment. Okay? I'm here, I'm okay. Just calm down all right? I need you to stay calm."

"I know but-"

"Elle!" Ford finally yelled into the phone.

She stopped, remaining silent.

"Listen, I promise everything is going to be all right. Okay? I'm fine, and I'm going to come to the hospital by sunrise tomorrow. I'll get you and Sam out of there and find somewhere safe for you to stay all right?"

"All right," she whispered.

"Babe? You going to be okay?"

She nodded, her tears falling like rivers as she couldn't contain her emotions any longer.

"Elle, it's going to be all right. I won't let anything happen to you or Sam, you got me?"

"Yes. I understand," she said softly, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"All right then. Have you heard anything about dad?"

"Joe? No, I haven't. I haven't heard anything from him. Is he okay?"

"I don't know. He was air lifted to Hawaii with me and was supposed to be on a priority flight to San Francisco immediately due to his medical condition, but I never heard whether or not he made the flight after Gojira's fight."

"Go-what?"

Ford did a mental face palm, remembering she had no idea the things he'd heard about from Drs. Serizawa and Graham about Gojira and the MUTO's.

"Gojira is the lizard's name, Elle. And I know it sounds crazy, but try not to worry about him. He's not the real threat," Ford said as reassuringly as he could.

"What do you mean "he's not the real threat" Ford? He's far bigger than that other thing we saw on tv the other night!" She said.

"I know Elle, I was there. The other thing you saw is called a MUTO, a "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism." Gojira is hunting it, not us."

"But how can you be sure that this Gojira or whatever it is won't turn towards humanity when he's killed it?"

"I can't be sure Elle, but for now I want you to be more on the look out for the MUTO okay?"

"Okay Ford. But what about Sam? Should I keep him here with me?"

"Yes. But Elle, the MUTO is heading your way. If you feel that you need to leave with Sam, then do it. I'll find you again when it's over. The military has a plan to deal with these things and I'm going to be en route to San Francisco within the hour by train. I should arrive in time to reach you and Sam and get you to safety, but if I something happens. If-"

Ford was stopped by the thought of this scenario becoming a reality, but continued once he swallowed the lumping his throat.

"If I don't make it," he said quietly.

"Don't make it? What do you mean?"

Ford was silent, unable to bring himself to say it.

"Ford, you're scaring me!"

"Sorry Elle. Look, just be ready for me okay? If I don't arrive in time to join you then get yourself and Sam out of there without me. I'll find you. I promise."

"Okay Ford, but don't make us leave without you all right?"

"I'll do my best Elle. I love you," he said.

"I love you too Ford. Just get here okay?"

"… I'll see you soon," he said before hanging up the phone.

Ford walked outside and grabbed his gear, making sure everything was ready for his trip. He had been given a military uniform and bag, and as he wandered down the street he passed a military truck while putting on his helmet. The driver gave him a nod, and he nodded back. Taking off on a jog, Ford caught up to the train and hopped on board as a news broadcast echoed in the background.

_"As blackouts and electrical interference radiate farther and father west, citizens within two hundred miles of the creature's current sphere of influence are being urged to please find shelter, stay indoors, and stay off the roads."_

On the USS Saratoga, admiral Stenz was on the phone with the president.

"Yes, sir… Yes, warheads are on the move… I completely agree sir," he said as he hung up the phone.

He looked to Captain Russell Hampton, nodding to him.

"All right people, let's go. I need to know the exact location of the MUTO's A.S.A.P," He ordered.

"Aye, sir. We're updating our monitors with current tracking data right now," responded one of the crew.

As admiral Stenz began to leave the room, Dr. Serizawa stopped him.

"Admiral," he said.

Stenz turned around, certain he knew where the conversation was going to be heading.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Please don't do this," Serizawa pleaded.

"I understand your concerns, doctor. But I am sacrificing lives every minute just trying to steer one of these things away from population centers and now there's two more of them on the way. There are millions of lives at risk. All I want to know from you is: can it work? Can they be killed?" He asked.

"But, we tried that before! Castle Bravo was the final attempt at killing Gojira in 1954, but it didn't work. He was exposed to it from a distance of around three hundred meters, and all it did was severely burn his hide and break a few of his bones which have obviously healed with little to no lasting damage. The MUTO's might not be so capable of surviving given the difference in size and body type, but I cannot guarantee that Gojira will be killed by it."

"Doctor, Castle Bravo was a fifteen Megaton blast. This modern nuclear warheads such as the one we're using are capable of reaching in excess of sixty Megatons. And as you know, the higher the yield, the energy released becomes exponentially higher. It's not a straight multiplication or calculation like most people think who don't bother studying these things. He may have survived Castle Bravo, but this will annihilate even him," Captain Hampton reassured him.

Though the explanation and the data was sound, Serizawa remained unconvinced.


	14. Chapter 12 - Game Change

_**Chapter 12: Game Change**_

_Date: May 18, 2014_

—

"Sergeant Morales, gimme a hand," Ford requested.

"I thought these nukes all detonated by remote control," Morales responded.

"Well the MUTO's knocked out everything electric, including detonators. Thing is you can't even get in range without these things going haywire. But this, this on the other hand. This is old school, clockwork."

"Takes a lickin, keeps on tickin," Morales said with a smile.

Ford and Morales shared a laugh, but in the back of Ford's mind was a lingering doubt as to whether or not this was the right move. And at that moment, an explosion rang over the edge of the mountain ahead of the train behind the two men. Ford turned around and saw the fireball rising above the mountain peaks and the forests covering it, knowing full well that this was an ill omen of what was to come.

The train suddenly slammed on the brakes, causing Morales and Ford both to jerk almost off their feet. They managed to steady themselves quickly by grabbing the rails, but they wished they could do so without grabbing the rail as the screeching of the train tires was ear splitting. When the train came to a full stop, Ford looked up and saw gunfire flashing over the ridge with a couple of more explosions following soon after.

"Sergeant Morales, get down here with that radio on the double! Move, move, move!" Came an order from up ahead at the front of the train.

Ford looked back at him, and together they hopped off the train and made their way to the front with the radio to communicate with the forces up ahead.

"Hey guys, this is Bravo 2 November. Is the bridge clear, over?"

Over the radio came the sounds of shouting and gunfire, which almost sounded like a classic B movie suspense sequence. The irony was almost unbearable, and both Ford and Morales gave each other a shared look of understanding.

_Son of a bitch._

That thought pretty much summed it all up for the two of them.

"I say again, we got a train of VIP cargo headed for the coast. Is the bridge clear, over?" Morales asked again.

As Morales called again, Ford turned around and started heading for the tunnel. It was eerily quiet and completely devoid of light save for a small patch of moonlight close to the opening.

"Secure or not? Over!" Morales called again, looking over to Ford.

More screaming and static came from the other end of the radio, and the soldiers all started when a deep and rumbling noise of unknown origin echoed through the tunnel and over the ridge. Ford tucked the butt end of his weapon into his shoulder and readied himself as he began to press forward.

A few moments later the soldiers had worked themselves into teams and moved into the tunnel. They clicked on their shoulder flashlights and moved slowly and cautiously. The tracks were in tact and the tunnel itself was calm and quiet. When they reached the end of the tunnel they saw that the tracks ahead looked to be in good shape. The valley around them was calm and peaceful enough, which was unusual given what they had seen from the other side.

"Seems in tact," Ford said, looking back to the others with him.

"Only one way to find out. Wanna take the top?" The master sergeant asked.

"Sure, you check below. Sergeant Morales, you come with me."

Morales fixed his helmet and followed Ford out to the tracks while the master sergeant and his companion moved down the long, long ladder to the valley floor below.

As they hopped off the ladder and shone their lights out ahead, they saw that a river ran below the tracks. For the moment it seemed normal, and so they kept searching. Ford and Morales on the tracks above moved very cautiously, watching each and every step so as not to slip and fall through. As Morales moved forward, one of the crossbars below snapped and his left leg fell through. He caught himself before falling completely, but he dropped his flashlight down into the valley below by accident.

"Shit," he mumbled.

The flashlight struck the ground a short distance from the master sergeant and his companion. Their own lights shone over towards it, and they looked up to Ford and Morales above and shook their heads. They exchanged a "really?" glance, and took a moment to breathe after the sudden start. However, the air behind them began to turn orange, and as they turned they spied the fiery remains of what looked to be a tank heading towards them at a fairly rapid clip. The tank struck the shore with great force, and the two men jumped away for cover before directing their lights towards the tank.

"Jones, you all right?" The master sergeant asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," he responded.

As they looked at the river they began to see more flaming debris floating down the river with the tank. It didn't last long, but it was more than enough to sound an alarm. The master sergeant took a whistle from around his neck and blew into it. One short whistle, one long whistle. He sounded it twice, and Ford caught the sound but continued onward until something made him stop. He saw the end of the tracks, and looked back to Morales.

"The bridge is in tact," he said.

"Bulldog, this is Eagle. All clear to move out, over." Morales called over the radio.

"Roger that Eagle," came the response over the radio.

However, on the ridge behind Ford, there was movement.

Back at the train the soldiers all hopped aboard once again and prepared to move the train all the way through and pick the others up. The train's front light came on and it blowed its horn to let everyone know to get clear of the tracks and let it pass.

They started to try and communicate with Ford and the others, but the radio began picking up interference.

"Say again?" Jones asked.

"I do not have a visual, what is your position? Over," The master sergeant called.

"Unreadable, say again. Over," he continued.

Suddenly, the ground behind the master sergeant and Jones moved. They spun around and shone their lights on the source, which turned out to be the tip of the long front claw arm of the female MUTO. It rose up higher and higher into the air, and Ford caught sight of her quickly enough to let Morales know to hit the deck against the tracks to prevent her from seeing them. At the same time, Ford shut off his shoulder and weapon light to avoid drawing attention.

The female moved slowly and deliberately, as if searching for something. Ford watched her and listened, trying not to flinch against the thundering sound of her clicking and grunting. The clicking went from a slow and even frequency to a rapid frequency. The grunting and groaning was almost like the sound of wood creaking, just with a much deeper sound. The female moved around the side of the tracks, and Ford kept a very careful eye on her as she moved into the valley and ducked underneath the tracks. He turned his head to the side enough to see those gigantic "eyes" of hers, which looked the same as the males, as she moved beneath him. She continued growling and as she moved her eyes flashed slightly and sergeant Morales's radio light flickered with it.

The female continued her movement along underneath the two of them, and Morales began to grow frantic in his attempts to shut off the radio so the sound didn't draw her attention. However she growled once more and stood up alongside the tracks, her body rising up several meters above them until she towered over them completely. Ford kept his breathing steady, but his heart was still in his throat. She began to look over to the tracks where Ford and Morales were, but the sound of the train's horn caught her attention and she let out a small roar and began moving back over the mountain ridge.

As she moved up and over the tracks, Ford saw a large orange glowing sack underneath her lower abdomen. He could only presume those were eggs, and the very thought of these things breeding and letting all those infants hatch and grow was horrifying to Ford as he watched her slowly disappear into the fog. Ford and Morales stood up on the tracks and pointed their weapons in her direction just in case, not that they would do anything. Still, it was a small comfort.

A single sharp crashing sound erupted from the tunnel, and after a few moments the silhouette of the train, now engulfed in flames, came barreling out of the tunnel in their direction.

"Run!" Ford shouted.

The two men turned and began sprinting across the tracks as fast as they could.

"Move it!" Ford shouted again.

Morales did his best to keep up, but as he called out to Ford the claw of the female MUTO ripped through the tracks knocking sergeant Morales from them and out into the valley below to his death. Ford had no choice but to leap off the tracks and down into the water below. It was a long fall, and the fact that he survived it was nothing short of a miracle. Underwater, Ford looked up just in time to see the flaming train coming down towards him. He remained under until the train impacted the water and then fought his way to the surface to take a breath.

As his head came above water, he saw the female taking the warheads and consuming them. One of them fell into the water at her feet, which she seemed not to notice, and continued until she had consumed both of the remaining warheads on what was left on the train. A combination of the waves generated by the train's crash and the MUTO's enormous weight shifting the water as well as the weight of Ford's gear prevented him from getting more than a few quick breaths before he was pulled under again. He continued fighting to stay on the surface, but eventually the shock and adrenaline leaving his system caused him to black out.

Back on the USS Saratoga, an alarm started blaring.

"He's going under!" A crewman shouted.

"Boats, sound the collision alarm! Bring about to 180," the captain of the vessel called.

Outside the window, Gojira's figure began rising out of the water just in time to begin diving right back under. Bit by bit, meter by meter, his figure disappeared beneath the waves. The splashing of the water around him caused large waves which began causing the boats following him to list off to the sides. In the planning room of the USS Saratoga, admiral stenz watched as one of his pencils rolled off to one side of the table as the boat beneath him began to list off as well. The mighty carrier was helpless against the waves generated by Gojira's descent.

"We're losing visual, admiral. He's diving."

Gojira appeared on screen via underwater camera on the main monitors.

"Changing course and moving fast, I've got him at thirty-three knots and picking up speed. He's gonna outrun us sir," said the crew woman.

Stenz released a sigh of frustration and could do little more than hope that this wouldn't get too far out of hand.

Back on the coast, Ford awoke covered in sand and surrounded by debris. The bodies of some of his fellow soldiers were scattered about as he coughed sand out of his mouth and tried to brush it out of his eyes. Ford was exhausted, and could barely even stand. All he could do for the moment was turn his head and look around. Hundreds, if not thousands of trees, branches, and logs all around him. Boxes of supplies and pieces of military vehicles were scattered about as well as the remains of the train tracks which the MUTO had destroyed.

A few minutes later Ford heard the sound of a helicopter approaching the area, and he forced himself to his feet. He noticed that they had found the remaining warhead and were airlifting it out. Ford stumbled forward through the debris towards the soldiers as they began working to load up the warhead, and one of the other men spotted him. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, put his middle and index fingers up to his goggles and pointed at Ford. His CO turned to look in the direction he was pointing and saw Ford walking forward, still barely able to remain on his feet.

"MEDIC!" He yelled into his comms.

Back at Elle's hospital, the news reports were reporting that the West coast was now undergoing a full evacuation. Citizens were being advised to head into the BART stations as they were designated as shelters for the disaster.

"Wait! These patients are my responsibility. Where are you taking them?" She asked the soldier who was helping wheel her patients out of the hospital.

"Across the bridges. Critical and children only," the soldier replied.

"Shelters are gonna fill up fast Elle," Laura warned.

"Trust me they're gonna be safer outside the city. I can take Sam," she offered.

"No, no Ford's on his way." Elle responded.

"Well, if you change your mind the busses leave in ten minutes," Laura said.

"Come on, where are you Ford?" Elle asked.

Outside, the soldiers were helping load up children and critical patients on the busses and other vehicles to lead them out of the city as the helicopters carrying the warheads passed by overhead. Ford sat in one chopper, and the one carrying the warhead began to veer off to another location.

"Hey, where are they taking it?" Ford asked.

"Twenty miles off shore, convergence point. We're gonna lure them there!" The other soldier responded.

Ford began to look back out towards the nuke, worried about this course of action.

"Three birds, one stone," he continued.

The nuke was loaded up onto one of the warships in the bay, and prepared to move out when the alarms started blaring again. Word reached them pretty quickly as to what exactly was coming from the Pacific.

Back at the hospital, Elle was standing in the street with Sam in her arms as she searched for a bus that wasn't fully loaded. One bus came up behind and honked at her, and she flagged the driver down. When the doors opened, her friend Laura was there.

"Sammy, you remember Laura. She's mommy's work friend right? She's gonna look after you just for a little bit. Daddy's gonna be here soon, and I'm just gonna come get you right after. Okay? I promise."

"… Kay," Sam responded softly.

"Okay?" She said with a smile as she kissed his forehead.

"Come on sweet heart, you're gonna come with me," Laura said as she helped Sam find his seat nearby.

"Your mom is gonna stay here and help. Elle, I'm gonna take care of him okay? Say "bye-bye" mommy," Laura said to Sam.

"Bye mommy," Sam said sadly.

Elle could barely contain herself as he said that and forced herself to smile for him through her growing tears that welled in her eyes. As the bus pulled away she let them fall and kept waving to Sam's bus as it began to disappear around the corner of the street.

Meanwhile, back up in Oakland Ford was helped out of the chopper and walked over to an area where a medic began to give him a basic check up.

"Hey, did you lose consciousness?" The medic asked.

"I'm fine, I' m fine," Ford responded.

Admiral Stenz had just arrived himself from the USS Saratoga, and as he walked in he asked for the sit rep.

"Sitrep please, location of targets?" He asked.

"The male MUTO was spotted thirty miles off the Farallon Islands," one man said.

"We're showing seismic activity to the East, near Livermore, should be the fame closing in," a woman watching the readings said.

"And where is Gojira?" Stenz asked.

"Last contact was still five hours ago, maintaining a bearing of 050 degrees and descending below a depth of ten-thousand feet. He'll be here within the hour," she responded.

Stenz watched the news feeds, and what he saw worried him greatly.

"There are still busses on that bridge," he said.


	15. Chapter 13 - Unstoppable

_**Chapter 13: Unstoppable**_

_Date: May 19, 2014_

—

The Golden Gate Bridge stood tall and proud in the misty morning light as hundreds of cars and buses all filled its length and caused it to flatten and dip slightly due to the immense weight. A pair of F-22 Raptor jets flew by overhead as the children in the buses all yelled and clamored amongst themselves as they were too innocent to understand the urgency of the situation. The fact that the bus ride had stopped meant it was play time to them, even with all the chaos of the bridge going on around them.

The police had barricaded one end of the bridge and stopped all traffic from leaving due to the imminent arrival of Gojira, but they weren't about to tell that to the people on the bridge. Less panic right? One officer walked over to the bus Sam was on and tried to let the driver know that they weren't going anywhere, but the poor driver was unable to hear him due to the children's screaming behind him.

"What? I can't hear you!"

He turned around.

"Kids, please be quiet!" He pleaded.

The police officer had already left though to warn other drivers, and Sam was the only child sitting quietly watching the driver's struggle. He was still thinking about his mom and dad and how his dad hadn't come for them like he promised. Suddenly, all the children moved to one side of the bus to watch as a tank rolled up and smashed the guard rails where people would walk across the bridge to take up a defensive position. The children thought it was awesome, yelling and pointing because of how cool it was. But what was better than one tank? Two? Three? No, how about a crap ton?!

Tank after tank rolled up and took positions along the bridge. The soldiers all took up their positions as well as the police. Soldiers and officers running too and fro taking up positions along the bridge as the children looked on completely oblivious to the danger which they were in. The driver dipped his head and set it against the backs of his hands which rested on the steering wheel. Laura, sitting on the isle opposite Sam, was similarly rubbing her temples annoyed out of her mind at the kid's not calming down or shutting up.

Below the bridge military ships began taking up positions across the bay. Their horns blared signaling their arrival and intent to move to their designated location, and the children's yelling only got louder. The poor adults closed their eyes and both tried their best to tune the children out, but it was no use. Their excited cries were just too loud, and their innocence and ignorance to the danger was painful.

However…

The children finally went silent after a few moments, but it was not of their own choice or willpower. Their youthful fascination with the unknown was what silenced them this time, and the sound that caused this remarkable phenomenon was the sound of Gojira's roar echoing across the bay. That low rumbling and guttural call rising in pitch at the end cut through the misty morning air like a knife and caused the children to go silent almost immediately. Laura and the Driver exchanged nervous glances, and the driver wiped away a bit of fog from his window which was generated by the heat of all the people in his bus versus the colder temperatures outside.

There was a long and uncomfortable silence after the roar faded. The children all looked about, but none of them dared say a word. The adults were frozen in place, as were the soldiers and police officers outside. Other adults who'd abandoned their vehicles to cross on foot with their umbrellas to protect them from the rain also had stopped cold wondering where the sound had come from. Sam moved over to one side of the bus and looked out the window. He saw the ships, one or two of them blaring their horns in the distance, before suddenly a sea gull smashed into the window and cracked the glass. The impact startled all of the kids, but that was nothing compared to the fact that there were now hundreds of birds filling the skies and taking off in the opposite direction from the bay.

The soldiers on board one of the destroyers nearest to the Ocean at the edge of the bay watched the birds overhead, certain that this was a warning as to what was to come.

"Port side, 200 meters!" One crewman yelled.

Another soldier down below on deck walked to the edge and looked out into the fog, and what he witnessed sent a chill down his spine.

Out in the water of the Pacific was a mound of water that was fast approaching them. The surface of the water broke revealing a set of long jagged spines, and it was racing towards the boat at great speed.

"BRACE!" He yelled.

Everyone on the boat immediately grabbed the edge or whatever else was next to them that was secure to steady themselves against the coming impact, but it didn't come. The massive form of Gojira stopped cold in the water about a dozen meters away, but the waves produced by his approach caused the ships to list dangerously to the sides. One destroyer vessel almost capsized due to how large the waves were, and the ships were forced to ride them out until at last they settled down and they regained their positions. All the while, Gojira had remained still.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Called the captain of the vessel called over the speaker system.

The soldiers began gathering at the edge of the boat to look at the massive form of Gojira. His back was fairly round, and had around three or four rows of large spines running down the length of him. They were fairly large towards the middle, but got smaller towards the end. The skin was a sort of grayish hue with mild shades of green underneath, and was very rugged and rough.

"He looks a bit smaller than he did on the television broadcasts," one policeman back on the bridge said.

"Yeah, I thought he was supposed to be a lot bigger," another one said.

One soldier standing nearby at the edge of the bridge looked over at them. His brows were furrowed and his eyes a bit wider than normal in his shock at their ignorance and, frankly speaking, stupidity. As he looked back out to the water and he thought about the soldiers on the ships, his heart sank as a rumbling sound began to fill the air.

Gojira's back dipped slightly, and then it began to rise out of the water. What was once a "back" turned out to be nothing but Gojira's tail. It crashed out of the water and rose up higher and higher into the air. This section of his tail by itself had to have been at least the length of a football field, if not longer. It rose up until it was nearly vertical before slamming back down into the water. The giant walls of water which rose into the air nearly reached as high as his tail had, and the soldiers all watched in pure shock and amazement as they felt the ship beneath their feet begin to rear up. They spun around and saw that Gojira's true back and his primary set of dorsal spines were rising up between another set of ships behind theirs.

One ship was caught in-between his spines, and got stuck in them as his back rose out of the water. The policemen on the bridge almost fell to the ground as they felt their legs buckle in shock and horror, and the soldiers all put their weapons against their shoulders and prepared to do what they knew was pointless. Gojira's back rose out of the water yet further, and one of the ships began to fall back and away from him into the water. Its stern fell beneath the waves, and the alarms began sounding frantically before the ship managed to level out and float backwards in the wake created by Gojira's surfacing.

As the ship fell away, the soldiers on the deck who braced themselves watched the spines rising up and took note of just how big they were. The largest one had to be at lest fifty to sixty feet long, if not a bit longer. Gojira's impossibly large form effortlessly pushed the ships away with the force of his surfacing alone, and despite the ship caught in his spines he managed to push his way forward. On board the ship which had fallen back, the orders from above came through.

"Fire, fire, fire!" They yelled.

The first shot was unleashed, and the explosion of the shell against Gojira's spines lit the sky around his body but ultimately failed to do anything at all. Gojira didn't even flinch. He continued on his present course forward, dragging the ship caught in his spines with him which was now sending an S.O.S. signal. The soldiers on the bridge looked out across the water and were horrified at the scale of Gojira. They'd seen how big he was on the news broadcasts and through their briefings, but seeming him in person was a whole different beast on its own. Looking out into the bay, he was easily three times larger than any of the ships sent out against him in terms of girth, and several times longer. His tail whipped about behind him and slammed down in front of one of the other ships behind him, frightening everyone on board halfway to peeing themselves.

The ships began sending out more and more shells and missiles towards Gojira, and those which failed to make contact flew on a course for the Golden Gate Bridge. Racing over the bridge and through the gaps between the cables, the missiles flew overhead and the driver of Sam's bus had enough even before he heard the children scream in terror as the realization that they were in danger finally struck home. He threw the bus into gear and slammed his foot down on the accelerator and raced forward along the street crashing through the police barricades as he attempted to flee to safety. Before he could, however, he was stopped in his tracks when one of the missiles struck the cabling and sent a section of it down in front of his bus.

The soldiers began running to the edge of the bridge and attempted desperately to reach the ships.

"Striker, there are civilians on the bridge! Hold your fire! Hold yo-"

They had to duck as more missiles flew towards them, but the missiles were intercepted by the rising form of Gojira. The missiles struck his spines and side as he stood up alongside the bridge, the ship which had been caught in his spines having since fallen into the water onto its side spilling the crew and supplies on deck into the water around his legs.

"Open fire!" The soldiers yelled.

Gojira's body finally rose up for all to see as the order was given. His tremendous figure loomed tall over the bridge as he straightened out his head and neck and let out an Earth shattering roar. The children covered their ears, as did everyone within range.

The children managed to look up in time to see his form in full as the soldiers began firing their weapons. His head was fairly flat on top and box shaped towards the front with a square-ish nose though it was rounded off near the edges. The cheeks flared a bit underneath the eyes, but were ridged and fortified with rough scales. His jaw was large and muscular, looking very similar to that of a Nile Crocodile at the hinge though his mouth was overall much shorter. The eye ridges were forward in a perpetual frown, and his large eyes beneath them glanced down at the bridge and the children could swear that he was looking at them for a moment. Whether that was truly the case or not was anyone's guess, but that single moment was enough to strike fear into the children's hearts.

His neck was dense. That was the best word for it: dense. A thick and well muscled neck lined with gills along the sides and the tell-tale scarring from where the MUTO had attacked them during their first fight. His shoulders were forward in a similar fashion to a theropod dinosaur's, but much thicker and more human in terms of their length in proportion to his body. His chest was covered in very pronounced and large scales which almost looked like the underside of a turtle, but it wasn't a shell. His well built torso was thick and packed with muscles that rippled with every movement and exuded raw power like nothing anyone had ever seen before. Human body builders liked to pump iron to look good, but compared to the natural strength that was implied by Gojira's very being, they were nothing.

Gojira's claws were covered in overlapping scales along his fingers, ending in long and wicked claws. His spines were rough and uneven, not one appearing exactly like the next. Each one had a unique shape, though each one had more than one spike on it. The scales covering his body were very large and rugged, giving him a very tough and gritty exterior. Everything below the bridge was invisible, but everyone who saw him rising above the bridge was certain that it was more of the same. Rough, rugged, powerful, and dangerous.

The sounds of bullets flying about brought everyone back to their senses as Gojira's right claw found its way to the cabling of the bridge as a couple more missiles struck his sides. The bus driver didn't need another cue. He threw the bus into reverse and floored it, backing away just enough to clear the fallen cable and continue on unimpeded across the bridge to safety as the military continued to engage Gojira.

The tanks on the bridge pelted his stomach. The soldiers littered his skin with bullets. The ships fired missiles into his other side all along his body. And the planes flying about overhead launched missiles at his chest and neck. All in all, it was an unpleasant experience.

But Gojira was not about to be swayed or bullied like this. He leaned down, letting go of the bridge's cabling as he did so until his face was level with the bridge. His enormous eye rolled to the side until it landed on one of the soldiers whom had been previously firing at him. The soldier stopped firing and looked into Gojira's eye, and he could swear that the eye was saying "You're a dead man."

Gojira stood up rather fast for something of his size, and he let out a long growl towards the ships in the bay in warning. His back arched slightly and he made sure to give a full display of his spines and his aggression by flaring his hands slightly to the side. But this did nothing to stop the onslaught. The ships continued to pelt him along with the tanks and planes, and Gojira pulled his upper lip back exposing his teeth as he let out a roar of warning. It was one short roar, but it should have been enough. Alas, it wasn't. The humans kept firing at him.

Finally, Gojira had had enough.

He snarled in full and opened his mouth to roar, lunging forward and throwing his arms out to the sides as he roared as long and as loudly as he could. The firing stopped for a brief moment, as the sheer decibel level forced those launching the attacks to stop and attempt to protect their ears against the audio assault. Gojira closed his mouth and looked out across the bay, but after a few seconds the firing resumed. He snarled once more, as they had ignored his final warning and now he was done pretending they weren't here. They were not his objective, but they were now officially in his way.

Gojira looked over to the ship nearest him which was about one hundred meters away. It had been one of the ships firing at his lower stomach, and his nose scrunched as he let out a growl and walked towards it. The ship began firing more frantically, and launched missile after missile into his chest and throat trying to stop him. Gojira leaned forward and roared, the long and angry call being interrupted by one lucky missile finding its way into his mouth. Gojira's roar was cut short and replaced by a cry of pain as he closed his mouth and shook his head. His back straightened and he shook his head again, temporarily stunned by the explosion in his mouth. This didn't last long as he almost immediately shook it off and growled at the ship again. He roared once more and raised his right hand into the air and slammed his claw down on the bow of the ship.

The mighty vessel's bow sank below the waves under the pressure of the strike before snapping off completely. The ship began taking on water immediately and the abandon ship alarms began blaring. Gojira didn't much care for the alarms, and so he once again raised his claw into the air and slammed it down into the ship. This time though it was the ships's central region, and he pushed the entire vessel beneath the water with one hand before there was a small jerk in his shoulder and what remained of the ship surfaced again in two distinct halves. The two halves began to sink after a few moments.

Gojira looked to the other ships as they continued to fire at him. He singled out a ship around two hundred meters away and trudged towards it. The ship began to back up, but it was headed right for another ship which began blaring its horn and sounding alarms. The two ships collided because the first was unwilling to stop trying to get away from Gojira as he advanced, however it was too slow to evade him. Gojira made it to the ship and grabbed the bow, pulling it in close and leaning his face down right to the deck and letting loose with a roar as loudly as he could. The entire crew on deck in the path of his roar were killed instantly by the sheer force of the roar, to say nothing of the decibel level's effect on their brains causing several instant hemorrhages and ruptures in the arteries and major organs which couldn't take the blast wave.

Those below deck were severely compromised, but didn't die immediately. Gojira closed his mouth and pulled the ship in closer and grabbed it with both hands. He lifted it up by its bow until the weight of the ship snapped the rest of it away leaving only a small amount left in his hands which he dropped into the water. He stepped forward and was about to finish the two ships off for good when suddenly he was struck in the neck on his left side where the MUTO had attacked his gills. The attack caused a small amount of pain, and he saw the culprits were a pair of F-22 Raptors racing by overhead. As they started to circle around for another run, Gojira knelt down to make himself appear smaller.

The soldiers on the bridge were wondering what the hell he was doing, but it soon became clear what he was up to. As the planes came down and launched their missiles, Gojira started standing up rapidly and opened his mouth. One of the planes was caught in his jaws while the other smashed into the side of his head and exploded. The plane in Gojira's jaws was crushed almost instantly and quickly left to fall into the water as Gojira let out a short roar of victory. But it didn't end there. Gojira was again struck on the sides by the ships which remained. They all started letting loose on him in a last ditch effort to drive him away or kill him, and to counter this Gojira went down and disappeared beneath the water.

The ships were forced to stop firing as they waited for Gojira to surface. The wait was not a long one. Gojira began surfacing beneath one of the battleships, his body perpendicular to the ship as his spines caught it along the middle and ripped the ship in half as he surfaced. The ship fell away in two halves as Gojira stood up and felt the sting of more missiles hitting him again and again. Another destroyer was right by his side, and he turned towards it and body slammed it beneath the waves. The waters went still with both Gojira and the ship hidden beneath the waves. After a few moments the debris from the ship floated to the surface along with dozens of bodies of the crew before signs of Gojira's surfacing once again threatened the surface of the water.

He was in the center of the bay now, with the remaining ships scattered about him in a circle. His spines broke the surface followed by his head and the rest of his body until he was completely visible again and he roared in fury.

All around him the ships opened fire simultaneously and pelted his body over and over again hitting him everywhere and anywhere they could. The face, the neck, the chest, the stomach, the sides, the legs, the spines, literally everywhere that a missile could travel Gojira could feel the sting as he was bombarded by a constant barrage of firepower. Gojira turned his head to the side, but it was a mistake as another lucky missile struck him just below the eye. Gojira's eye snapped shut as he let out a roar of pain before shaking it off. Four ships had moved in now, and were within striking range. Gojira began to turn to one side, positioning his legs and hips just so before using his tail as a battering ram. The crack of a sonic boom echoed across the bay as his tail literally whipped through the air just above the surface of the water and smashed all four ships in range, splintering them instantly and sending a rain of debris out across the water towards the other ships.

Back in Oakland, Serizawa and Stenz were watching the battle.

"Admiral, call off your ships," Serizawa pleaded.

Stenz looked to Serizawa.

"Excuse me?"

"They cannot stop Gojira. They are wasting their lives," Serizawa continued.

Stenz's mouth tightened and he grabbed Serizawa's lapels and slammed him into the wall.

"My men are not _wasting_ anything doctor!" He said in a pure and unbridled rage.

Stenz let go of Serizawa a moment later, but was still no less angry with his statement. He turned to the others, and let out a sigh of frustration.

"Call them off," he ordered.

Gojira felt the sting of a few more missiles and roared in fury, but then all went quiet around him. The ships stopped firing, and Gojira looked around to each of them in confusion. Slowly, the ships all backed away and began gathering at the other end of the bay towards the ocean. Gojira was glad to have the missiles finally stop pelting him, as it was more than a little annoying having those tiny pellets hitting him every other second. He turned around and headed towards the bridge, but stopped as he reached it.

He remembered looking down at the soldier before, and he knelt down slightly to examine the bridge. There were more soldiers and tanks along the length of the bridge watching him, which earned a small snarl of warning just as a reminder not to attack him. But then he saw others whom he hadn't seen before. Other humans on the bridge inside the buses and cars watched him as well, and Gojira stood up. He looked beyond the bridge to the city. The MUTO's were there somewhere. He could sense it. He looked down towards the bridge again and then looked over towards the city along the bridge. The line of cars and buses extended well into the city itself which meant it really didn't matter if he went around or not.

Finally, he made a decision.

Gojira took a single step forward and his torso smashed through the bridge sending dozens of cars, tanks, soldiers, and police officers falling down into the frigid waters below as he continued through unimpeded. After taking a few more steps he stopped and looked back at the bridge. He saw the damage he'd caused and the buses and cars he'd sent into the water and wondered for an instant if he'd made the right choice. However, the threat of the MUTO's was more important than a few of these human lives to him. Ultimately if he'd gone around the same thing would have happened on shore. There was no more time to waste on these puny humans.

He marched onwards, determined to find and destroy the MUTO's once and for all.


	16. Chapter 14 - Let Them Fight

_**Chapter 14: Let Them Fight**_

Date: May 19, 2014

—

As Gojira marched unopposed through the waters of San Francisco Bay, the men on a smaller nearby naval vessel gathered on the deck.

"Prepare to arm the device!" The lead called out.

The men all gathered around the warhead, removing the metallic shielding from the device's inner workings.

"Arming keys!"

Two men stood side by side, each placing a key into the slots for manual analog start up.

"Three!… Two!… One!"

The two men turned the keys precisely at the same time, and the device then came to life. The gears started turning, and the countdown began. One hour and thirty minutes was all they had now until detonation. The sun was fading fast on the horizon, but it wouldn't be long now.

However, at that moment, a strange sound echoed through the skies above them and a large pulse wave of some kind tore through the air. The lights in the city nearby all shut off, and the engines of the vessels in the water all shut down as well leaving them all dead in the water.

"What the Hell was that?"

"EMP," another called out.

"Engine's shut down, we lost power!"

Back in the city streets, everything from street lamps to vehicles all started shutting down. The ambulance where Elle Brody was helping tend to a wounded patient shut down, and she carefully turned back to observe what was going on. It was all quiet in the city, but it didn't stay that way for long. The parachute of a soldier could be seen cutting through the haze, and it wasn't long after that a plane crashed into one of the neighboring buildings exploding on contact as its fuel caught fire.

Back on the waters of the Bay, the soldiers on board the warhead vessel watched as the planes which had been summoned to help against Gojira all started falling from the sky. The mechanical releases of the pilot's ejector seats managed to work, and there were parachutes everywhere as the planes all went down though some were not so lucky to escape their watery grave. A plane splashed down directly in front of the vessel, making everyone duck for cover against the resulting wall of water.

Then, a horrible scream came from above. The soldiers brought weapons up and looked to the skies, seeing the male MUTO descending fast on their position in a straight dive bomb. The MUTO's jaws opened wide, and it folded its wings back as the soldiers fired upon it, slamming down on top of the vessel and dragging everyone aboard to a watery death. The waters were silent for but a moment before the MUTO reappeared closer to shore. It scrambled out of the water, warhead in its mouth as it clung to the ship. The MUTO pushed it to the ground and used its forearms to wrench the warhead free, tucking it into one of its smaller underarms as it then took wing and flew off into the city.

Landing on a building in the China Town district, it peered out across the city. There was a massive wall of dust approaching, but the male knew exactly what it was that was coming. He released three calls in total. Two short barks and one longer groan. The calls were echoed by something much larger, and he ensured the warhead was safe in hand and glided down off his building rooftop landing in front of the mass of dust. From out of the cloud appeared the face of the female MUTO, standing over twice as tall as the male. Had she wanted to, she could easily have killed him, but she did nothing of the sort.

Instead, the two shared an intimate moment. The male presented the warhead to her in his mouth, and she leaned forward to nuzzle against him. The two locked snouts for an instant, their red flashing eyes synchronizing as she took the warhead and used her smaller underarms to hold it close to her egg sac. The eggs began glowing in response to the warhead, and the female knew that this was as good a place as any to begin building her nest. The male climbed to the top of a nearby building and flew away as the female began to carve away the ground beneath her feet, intent on building a nest for her beloved young safe from the dangers of the world above.

Ford, in the meantime, was checking for information on his family.

"Sam Brody was checked into the Oakland colosseum an hour ago. He's safe, but I have no record of Elle Brody. She never made it out of the city."

"Well check again!" Ford demanded, pounding his fist against the table the man was leaning on.

He checked himself, realizing he was being too hard on this man.

"Please… I told her to wait for me and I didn't make it," he said, more calmly.

"I'm sorry. But they are trying to get everyone downtown into subway shelters. I'm sure your wife is fine!" The man called as he was summoned away.

Ford exhaled, rubbing his temples as he worried about his wife.

"Lieutenant Brody! I'm looking for Lieutenant Brody!" A voice called from behind him.

He turned, staring at the man who was asking for him.

"Are you Brody?"

"Yes!" He responded.

Back in a meeting room, Captain Russell was briefing the members of the HALO Drop teams about the plan of action to take against the MUTO's.

"Alright listen up! The male delivered the warhead to the center of downtown. That puts 100,000 civilians in the blast radius, and we can't stop it remotely."

"Analog timer has been installed and the MUTO's are frying electronics within a five mile bubble. It means approaching from ground is not an option. That's why we'll be conducting a HALO insertion. Jumping altitude will be 30,000 feet, just skate to the top and drop. Here… and here," said one of the lead soldiers on the team as he pointed to the bubble on the map to indicate their positions during the drop.

"If you don't hit a skyscraper on the way in you meet at rally point Charlie."

"Doctor, any guesses where to look?" Another soldier asked Serizawa, who was standing nearby.

"Underground. If the MUTO's have spawned, they'll be building a nest," he responded.

"Captain, when you find the warhead, how long to disarm it?" Admiral Stenz asked.

"Sir, without seeing the analog mod I couldn't even guess," the captain of the team responded.

"Sixty-seconds if I can access it, I retrofitted that device myself." Ford said, having just arrived to the briefing.

"Lieutenant Brody is the only E.O.D. tech to survive the train attack," Captain Russell said.

"Well it sounds like we could use you," the Captain of the team said.

"With all due respect, if that doesn't work what's plan B?"

"The waterfront is located one click downhill. Get the bomb to the pier, onto a boat, and as far away from the city as possible before it detonates."

There was silence for a few seconds, and Captain Russell broke it.

"Any questions?" He asked.

There was no answer.

"Dismissed," he said again, causing everyone to begin leaving.

"That's it, let's move!" The captain of the team said.

He stopped Ford.

"Lieutenant… They've already been briefed, we have no extraction plan. If you don't walk out, you don't come back at all." He said.

Ford looked at him seriously.

"Sir, I'll do whatever it takes," he said.

Admiral Stenz watched Ford leave, and then walked outside where Serizawa was observing the activity going on around him silently. The Admiral walked right beside him, taking a breath.

"This alpha predator of yours doctor. Do you really think he has a chance?" He asked.

Serizawa was silent for a moment, then responded.

"The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in our control… And not the other way around," he said.

A few moments later, he nodded his head a few times.

"Let them fight," he said.


	17. Chapter 15 - Gojira vs MUTO, Round Two

_**Chapter 15 - Gojira vs. MUTO, Round Two**_

_Date: April 19, 2014_

—

The male MUTO swooped in between and around several massive buildings as it sensed the presence of a hostile approaching from the Bay. Soaring passed a gathering of skyscrapers, people still trapped inside and unable to evacuate in time watched in horror as the massive creature flew by the windows causing dozens of them to shatter from the pressure wave generated by the flap of its wings.

The MUTO landed on a smaller building, one around fifteen stories tall, and released a few warning calls to whatever was approaching.

In the streets below, Elle Brody was running from the male MUTO's position with hundreds of other people around her before another massive bellow was heard from just ahead at the water. Elle looked on in wonder and horror as the massive form of Gojira slowly rose story by massive story until he was standing upright. Gojira let out a huff of air from his nose, clearing it as well as snarling towards the MUTO. Elle backed away from Gojira towards a shelter behind her, and as she did so she saw the male MUTO leap off the building and fly directly at Gojira.

Elle looked back over her shoulder just in time to see Gojira prep himself for impact, open his jaws, and grab the male MUTO by the shoulder as it flew into him. Gojira turned to the side, releasing the male as the doors closed, and lunged once more as they shut completely. Once inside, Elle was at the mercy of the massive crowd pushing and shoving her this way and that in their frantic attempt to find safety deeper in the shelter. The steps of the monster overhead could be felt in their chests every time it stomped the ground. The ceiling shook, and the Earth trembled. It was a nightmare come to life.

By this time, Ford and the other members of the team had been loaded onto a massive C-17 and were en route to the drop point. They'd been loaded up and the plane prepped ahead of time for what was to come, and as they continued en route they knew that somewhere down on the Earth below there was a titanic struggle going on. A struggle which trumped anything they'd ever been a part of and likely would ever be part of again.

The male MUTO smashed through a building and fell onto his back on the ground as the building began to collapse on top of him. Using his right wing, he frantically beat it against the ground to flip himself onto his stomach and used his long arms to pull himself free of the zone where the building was coming down. He jogged forward a bit, shaking his head as a growl came from behind him. He started looking over his shoulder, only to feel Gojira's powerful jaws clamp down on it and lift him off the ground. He flailed violently against Gojira's grip, but it was useless. The much larger monster was too powerful to shake off, and the male was helpless as it was swung around in a half circle and once again released and sent flying into a building. This time though, he didn't go all the way through and used his arms to grasp the sides and steady himself.

Turning around, he saw Gojira rushing forward with jaws open, and jumped into the air above his head as the giant reptile's face slammed into the building. The MUTO raised his two long forearms, and shoved them down as hard as he could into Gojira's shoulders. The blow was powerful and painful, but it was not enough to pierce Gojira's hide. Instead, the male used them as a jump off point to distance himself from his massive foe as he flew away into the air to get a better vantage point of his surroundings. Fighting Gojira blind was suicide, so the male rose to a height where Gojira could not hope to follow and started circling.

By this time, Gojira had pulled his head free of the building, and out of anger and frustration at having missed his target he shoved the building causing it to come crumbling down before him. His jaw was clenched tight and his teeth bared as he whirled around and looked up to find the MUTO still circling above him. He kept both eyes locked on his enemy as it flew about like a vulture over a carcass. The male checked all the nearby skyscrapers which were taller than Gojira, then those smaller than him. Finally, it had a game plan, and it began to glide down at an even pace so as not to rush Gojira again. Doing so was yielding disastrous results, so it was time to think more freely and less linearly. He was too powerful to take head on, but there was another way.

The MUTO flew down until he was low enough to hide behind the skyscrapers, and disappeared into the city. Gojira followed, stomping through while ignoring the screams of the people underfoot who were caught beneath him. Death was instantaneous for those unlucky enough to see his foot coming down on top of them, but as he moved more towards the heart of the city to where the skyscrapers were almost twice as tall as he was, he slowed to a stop.

… Where was it?

The MUTO was smaller than him, but it was still a massive target. How could it just vanish into this city like this? Gojira stepped cautiously, checking around every corner for signs of the male. He could sense the female nearby, but until he dealt with this threat she'd have to wait. Step by step Gojira walked through the city streets, looking left and right and all around for signs of the male's presence. At one point, he saw some rubble in an otherwise untouched area of the city streets, and his eyes narrowed. He sniffed the air, but he had been smelling the male all along and nothing had changed. Gojira looked around, trying to see if there were any other signs of activity or destruction, and that's when the male dropped down on him.

It had been clinging to the building above where Gojira had seen the fallen rubble, and had let itself drop down on top of his head. He used the momentum of his fall to drill his two sharp forearms into Gojira's neck just below his gills, one of the blows cutting through flesh enough to see a small spatter of red blood from the massive Kaiju. Gojira groaned in pain, shaking his head and shoulders in an attempt to get the male off but it was too late. It used one of its forearms to latch onto Gojira's spines and used the other to hook the inside of his mouth pulling his head in one direction while pushing his spines the other way. The pain in his back from the opposing forces caused Gojira's head to lurch to one side throwing him off balance and sending him crashing to the ground as the male jumped off of him and flew away.

Gojira shook his head, trying to make it to his feet until he heard a strange sound. He looked up, and the tallest building next to him was now coming down. The male had slashed away at the base and then flown into the upper floors destabilizing it and sending it all crashing down hard on top of Gojira. A massive pile of rubble came down on the Kaiju, burying him and sending a giant cloud of dust into the air. The male landed on a building nearby and waited, unsure of whether or not what he had done was effective. It took several minutes for the dust to clear completely, and the pile of rubble was still and silent. The male glided to a smaller building to get a closer look, landing as softly as it was able though it was still heavy enough to cause a bit of rubble to fall to the ground below.

Taking a moment to inspect the destruction, the male leaned down to sniff the pile… Nothing. The male jumped forward, landing on the pile and began to sniff again. Nothing. The dust in the air made it hard if not impossible to smell Gojira any longer, and the male shook his head. He poked around and looked left and right every time he heard a noise. Any piece of falling rubble, any sound of breaking glass, anything was enough to make him look. Finally, after a few more minutes, the male was convinced that his enemy was dead. The mass of the building must have been too much, and the male turned and began climbing back onto the smaller building to prepare to take off. His mate would be pleased that the only threat to their young was dead.

However, a muffled groan echoed through the air and the male turned slowly around to look at the pile. Part of it in the middle was sticking out, and it was sharp and pointy. It almost looked like one of Gojira's spines, but surely he was buried deeper than that. The male stayed on his building, examining it as carefully as he could from a distance as that same growl echoed again through the buildings.

Then all at once the pile of rubble exploded. Waves and waves of debris were sent flying in every direction striking the MUTO and causing him to shake and try to bat it all away. From beneath the rubble rose Gojira, extremely miffed, but otherwise unharmed. The massive Kaiju rushed his enemy as it turned to fly away, but managed to clamp down on the tip of its wing preventing it from escaping. The backlash of the clamp caused the male to ricochet downward into the building it used to jump from, and Gojira dragged him back towards him before releasing the wing and reaching down with his claws. The male looked up in time to see Gojira looming over him, and in desperation as his enemy's jaws opened above his head he jammed his right forearm into Gojira's neck. The blow was lucky, and the point of his long arm managed to break through the line of Gojira's gills and buried itself deep within the softer flesh beneath his scales.

Gojira screamed in agony as he flinched away from the pain, but the male's claw was still stuck there, and the male was dragged along as Gojira frantically stomped away and used his claws to grab the MUTO's and pull it free of his neck. Blood spurted from the wound like water from a fountain, and Gojira turned away from the MUTO shaking his head and neck violently in an instinctual reaction to the pain. The male took the time given him to gain the high ground and once again took wing, disappearing into the city and leaving Gojira to his wounds. The wound itself was low enough on his neck that he could not reach it to clean it, and the pain was excruciating. This was twice now that the male had done this to him. Once at the island, and now here. If he couldn't find a way to protect his neck he'd have serious problems dealing with the MUTO's later. But how does one protect an open flap of flesh and scales against a pointed object like the MUTO's claws?

Gojira had heard the direction the male had gone, but he was not interested in playing this game. Instead, Gojira made his way back to the Bay. The male was watching Gojira from a distance, slightly confused by his enemy's tactic if one could call it that. Gojira stepped into the water and submerged himself, blood pooling on the surface and leaving a trail out to the center of the Bay until the blood stopped. The male flew by overhead, looking down at the water as the trail of blood went cold, and landed on the broken Golden Gate Bridge to observe where his enemy went. The water, thanks to the rain, was murky and unclear, but he could still see most of what was going on down there. But it was strange. The ships were still here and a few had drifted beneath the bridge thanks to the odd currents. One of them was stuck against the support beams, and prevent the male from seeing everything just below him.

The water bubbled for an instant, and the male hopped to the side away from the bubbles. They stopped, and the male sat quietly watching the water once more. Bubbles formed again, just beneath him, and he hopped again to the side tearing down more of the cabling of the bridge on his way. Again, the bubbles stopped. The male slowly walked back to the break in the bridge and looked down, checking to see if anything was down there except for the broken ship and the soldiers running about on its decks. There really wasn't anything there though, and the male began to relax thinking that perhaps Gojira had retreated to the ocean. Maybe now he and his mate could focus on their young.

Apparently, things don't always go the way one wants them to. The water beneath him exploded as Gojira's form suddenly tore through the air with jaws agape. The male started to jump away but Gojira was too fast. By the time the male had managed to react, Gojira had already clamped down on his lower right leg and was now dragging him down into the water. The male fought frantically to free himself, jabbing at Gojira's face and neck with his fore claws to make him let go but he was dragged under anyway. Gojira pulled him in close, and used his arms to pin the male down on the bottom of the Bay. He could drown it, and then he could focus on the female. She was larger and slower, and she couldn't fly. She'd be a much easier target than he was proving to be.

The male was frantic, jabbing violently at anything he could see from Gojira's eyes to his mouth to his neck. However, Gojira was able to move his head to the side and avoid most of the strikes, though a few hit him in the chest and neck. But nothing was striking anything that wasn't tough enough to take the hits, and the male began to slow down. The drowning male was nothing if not resilient, and one final jab was lucky enough to strike him just beneath Gojira's left eye. The jab caught the softer flesh and tore a small section of it away, the tip just grazing Gojira's eye itself though causing no permanent damage. Still, it was painful, and out of pain Gojira jerked away giving the male room to shove himself away from the floor of the Bay to the surface of the water. He climbed up the bridge and shook himself off, taking wing and flying back into the city.

Beneath the waves, Gojira shook his head and blinked his eye a few times. It was still there, and he could still see just find with it. But this was getting out of hand. If he didn't end this soon the male would finally get lucky enough to take an eye out and that was something Gojira could not afford if he was going to face the female. He bore his teeth and let out a loud growl as he raced through the water towards shore. Gojira took to land, shaking off the water and trudging through the streets once more to find the male and finish him off. But would it be that easy with the male getting in lucky shots at every turn? Those blasted fore claws of his could do some massive damage, and were his primary weapon to boot. Gojira knew he had to do something about those arms if he was going to make it through this without losing an eye or taking irreparable damage to his gills.

Gojira stomped through the city streets until he reached something of a clearing with only one or two tall buildings around him. The rest were about half his height, if not smaller. He looked around, listening carefully for signs of the male as he could hear the flapping of wings in the distance. But the problem was the buildings around him diverting the sound and making it seem like it was coming from everywhere. Eventually the male would have to show itself, and he'd be ready. He didn't have to wait long either, as the male came swooping in not but a few seconds later at top speed. Gojira was caught off guard by the male's speed and as a result was too late in reacting to both of its fore claws extended forward as it rammed into his chest. Both of them cut through his flesh and held enough power and momentum to force him backwards into a building which caused him to fall onto his back. The male pulled his claws free and slammed them down on Gojira's chest again, one of them managing to puncture his hide a second time though not as deeply as the first attack had.

Gojira rolled to the side, causing the male to fall off of him as he turned his head and used it to batter the male's own. The blow could be heard echoing through the city, as if he'd just hit the male with a giant baseball bat. The male was sent flying, and as he landed it was clear he was thoroughly dazed. The male shook his head and tried to stand, but he wobbled off balance and fell to the ground again. It felt like his strength had been momentarily drained, and it was hard just to lift his head up to look around. For an instant, the male forgot that Gojira was even there until he felt the sting of Gojira's jaws clamping down on his left shoulder and his body being lifted up off the ground. Gojira stepped around, throwing the male in a circle into the air but he was fast enough to shake off his surprise and take wing, though he did have to use a building as a secondary jump off point to get airborne properly again.

The male flew away into the city once more, and Gojira took a moment to catch his breath before giving chase.


	18. Chapter 16 - HALO Drop

_**Chapter 16 - HALO Drop**_

_Date: April 19, 2014_

—

_((Note from author: There was a rather entertaining comment a guest tried to make about Gojira in the movie "humiliating the male MUTO in every one on one engagement they had."_

_For everyone who actually paid attention to the movie, you already know this is not the case. During the airport scene if one watches the tv, the male is jumping all over Godzilla the entire time they're on screen and the only thing Godzilla does that's productive is bite his leg. That's it. The rest of the time he's flailing trying to get the MUTO off of him. During the fight after the female went down post Godzilla's first atomic breath, the male was again jumping all over Godzilla and avoiding his attacks for most of the fight until Godzilla finally took him down with the tail swing. _

_Also, if Godzilla was good enough to "humiliate" the male MUTO in all of their engagements, how did the male last as long as he did from the time Elle was entering the shelter in the daylight to over an hour of fighting Godzilla well into night time without suffering any notable or serious injuries? It would seem to me that if Godzilla was so much stronger that he was able to "humiliate" the male every time they engaged that he'd have killed the male long before the HALO drop ever took place given how much time he had to get the job done._

_For those who don't realize the purpose of this message, it's that learning to "pay attention to detail" is a wonderful skill that shouldn't be underestimated or under appreciated. _

_For example, did you all notice that only Godzilla's middle row of spines glowed during his atomic breath scenes as opposed to all three like in the old Toho movies?_

_Thank you!))_

—

The C-17 with Ford and the other members of the HALO drop team screamed through the skies racing towards its destination point as fast as its engines could carry it. From take off to this moment it had been nearly an hour, and the race against time was becoming critical. Sitting a few seats down from Ford was a soldier with a bible, reciting a prayer for the upcoming mission.

"O Lord God, we give thanks for the opportunities that you have given us. Going together as comrades in service of our great nation. We thank you for the time and service that you have given us…"

By this time, Ford had tuned out all outside sound as he looked at a picture of his wife and son. The memories of his days in Janjira came rushing back to him, as did the words of his father when the two of them went back to try and find his old disks.

_"They evacuated us so quickly… I don't even, have a picture of her,"_ his father had said.

Ford was lucky. He had a picture of his wife and son, both powerful reasons for him to fight and continue on despite what it was he was getting into. Below him in the city awaited three giant monsters, each of which could squash him like a bug with absolutely zero effort if they bothered to acknowledge his existence.

Finally, the warning alarm blared and the red lights within the plane began flashing. It was the signal that they were arriving at the drop point, and that the doors would soon open for them to engage.

Ford stood up and immediately placed on his oxygen mask, checking and double checking his gear to prepare for the drop ahead. Standing on a line, the soldiers all turned to the right to fix and fasten the backpack gear of their neighbor in preparation for the ejection of the parachute once they reached a low enough altitude. The door slowly opened, and the soldiers all took their places within the plane's belly as they waited for the signal to jump. Ford fixed his goggles into place, breathing evenly and steadily as he waited for that most fateful of moments.

Three alarm calls went out, and that was it.

Ford and the others all rushed forward leaping out of the plane into a spread eagle position as they began their 30,000 foot descent to Earth. The moment he hit terminal velocity, Ford's ears stopped hearing anything except for the sound of his own breathing inside his mask as well as the wind flying by his ears. All other outside sound was cut out, and it was an otherwise quiet and heart pounding trip as the layer of clouds below him began to grow larger and larger. They covered the land from horizon to horizon, making it impossible to see the actual Earth beneath him.

As they descended into the layer, they noticed flashes of lightning around them which made most of them nervous. Breaking through the first layer into a calmer break between layers, they reveled in the lack of lightning as they entered the second cloud layer and finally broke through and saw the world below. The city of San Francisco had been turned into a sea of fire in the wake of Gojira's battle with the MUTO their current height, it was hard to see anything except for the flames and a few skyscrapers, but slowly, bit by bit, Ford began to make out two moving shapes beneath him.

One of the shapes became instantly obvious as the male MUTO with his wings spread and his legs flailing about frantically as the other shape beneath him was slightly obscured. However, it didn't take long for Ford to recognize it as Gojira. The male was pouncing about on Gojira's back jabbing him with his claws as the larger creature tried to turn and grab him, but it was no use. Finally though the male broke away as Ford entered his final stretch before the parachute deployment, and Gojira roared in silence as Ford pulled the chord.

The chute flew out and opened in full, catching Ford against it and pulling him up briefly before he began a rapid though steady descent towards the Earth below.

All around him were buildings which were unstable and primed to fall. Ford looked ahead to see what was left of the 555 building as it began to crumble and finally collapse from around its midsection. As it fell, it was right in Ford's path and so he had to divert his trajectory in order to avoid being crushed to death by hundreds, if not thousands of tons of building. The 555 went down, crashing into the ground and leveling all beneath it as Ford looked on and redirected himself back on target with his landing point. His struggles were not over though.

Soon enough Ford felt a mighty wave of wind behind him strike him in the back. He and his chute were pushed forward as the tremendous body of the male suddenly swooped past him. Ford was thrown to the side and his chute nearly collapsed, as the two were tossed aside in the wake of the MUTO's passing. As Ford managed to gain control of his chute, he saw that the male had streaked by in a charge at Gojira who appeared from around the corner of another large skyscraper. The male's arms were both thrust forward into Gojira's neck and shoulder, pushing him off balance and sending him falling to the ground with a tremendous thud which shook the Earth as the MUTO continued on his way to circle around and find another new angle of attack.

It amazed Ford that they had been going at it for so long. Neither one of them held a true advantage. The MUTO's size, speed, and ability to fly were a boon to it while Gojira's size, toughness, and tenacity were a boon to him. They'd been fighting for an hour, whereas most humans could only fight one another unprofessionally for a few minutes before exhaustion set in and one of them had to drop. These monsters were really something, but his admiration for them was short lived as he saw Gojira rising and beginning to walk in his direction. The massive reptile took no notice of him or his chute, and Ford made a frantic last ditch effort to divert his path down a nearby side street as Gojira just barely missed catching him on his way back down the road.

Finally, Ford touched ground. He ditched the chute as fast as he could and threw the goggles away as he readied his weapon and watched Gojira's tail disappear around the building corner. Ford jogged through the street for a moment or two before he found his comrades, who had also more or less descended safely to reach the rendezvous point.

"Get to position! Get to position!" The Captain called.

"I saw Team One move to the East. Two of our team members didn't make it. I heard bits and pieces on the radio and, snipers on the rooftop are moving into position," said another.

"Here we go, I'm picking up the nuke." Said another soldier with a tracking device.

"Which way?" The Captain asked.

"One click up the hill."

"All right, we found the warhead. Let's go! Up the hill, this direction!" The Captain ordered.

Together the team took off up the hill towards where the nuke had been located. As Ford jogged along he heard a loud and low grumble from ahead, and he could only hope that was his imagination playing tricks on him. But if life had taught him anything, it was that a mother is never far from her children whenever possible. If what he heard was what he thought, they were in for a very, very rough mission.

As they group progressed, they stopped a few hundred feet away from the source of the signal which had begun to get staticky. Ford knew then and there that it had to be the female. The closer they got, the less reliable the tracker was despite its internal shielding. They all took up cover behind a few cars in the streets as they assessed the situation. The Captain looked to Ford, two fingers pointed at his eyes before pointing them down the road. Ford knew it was a sign to take a look, so he carefully turned around and looked through the shattered windows of the car to see what was going on.

From behind the broken glass, Ford saw a massive claw moving forward before falling to the ground. Along with it was a low and guttural clicking sound which he hadn't heard from the male before during his close encounter on the train. As he looked up, the female's face came into view before she let out an obnoxiously loud and mournful call towards the sky. Ford and the others covered their ears to protect their hearing from the blast of sound, and watched as the female set the last of her eggs into the nest she'd built in the ground beneath her. It was almost sickening to see and hear the sounds of the egg sac on her belly contracting and squishing the eggs into the nest, but the soldiers all swallowed their disgust as the sound of debris hitting the ground behind them caught their attention.

It was their worst nightmare.

Gojira's tail was floating just above the roofline of the homes and buildings along the street in this section of China Town, and it whipped past them overhead with a whooshing noise as the massive creature turned his attention towards the female MUTO. Gojira knelt down and leaned forward, taking a closer look at what he'd found. Ford backed up into the car in awe of seeing Gojira this close. At the airport, he'd been a fair distance away but this was a whole new experience. The other soldiers were in a similar state, frozen and dumbstruck by what was looming before them. Gojira began to lean back, and the soldiers all raced to cover their ears as an Earth shattering roar pierced the heavens and made the Earth tremble beneath their feet.

As Gojira's roar concluded, the soldiers all turned around, ears still covered, as the female reared up to lock her gaze on Gojira. She began to rise to her full height, stomping the ground with her two massive front claws as she roared in defiance of the massive reptile and walked forward. Her claw struck the corner of a building on her way sending debris down towards Ford and another soldier who jumped out of harms way just in time to watch the female step over them on her way to engage Gojira. With the female out of position, the Captain called for them all to get moving. This was their chance to reach the nuke and disarm it before anything bad could happen. They readied their weapons and began running up the hill towards the nest, stopping at the edge as they heard a massive "THUNK" behind them.

Ford turned just in time to see Gojira biting the female's shoulder and shoving her back into the city beyond the skyscrapers blocking his view. That part of the mission was on Gojira now, and Ford's primary focus was now on reaching that nuke and disarming it to prevent catastrophe from killing him, his fellow soldiers, and most importantly his family.

"Sarge, take a look at this!" One of the soldiers called out.

"We got to get moving. Do we have a signal yet?" The captain asked.

"We got it… It's down there" the soldier with the tracker said.

The soldiers all took a breath and descended into the nest together. As they came upon a fallen chunk of building with a door in tact, they braced themselves in front of it and broke it down.

"Go! Move, move!" The Captain called.

The soldiers all rushed forward as they laid eyes on the nuke. It was suspended in the air, supported by several strands of goop with the female's eggs lined along it. The eggs glowed and flashed as the developing young began absorbing radiation from within the nuke. Given that only around 5% of a nuke's energy upon detonation was radiation while the rest was thermal and concussive force, they young would have to absorb it all now while it was in such a state they could do so with. If the nuke were to go off, there'd be nothing to protect them against the thermal and concussive force left over even if most of the nuke's radiation had been absorbed.

Ford looked on and examined the horde of eggs spread all along the ceiling and floors of the cave area the female had dug for her young, disgusted and fascinated all at the same time. His father's scientific curiosity was rubbing off on him, that was for sure, but he had to banish all such thoughts from his head as he was called back to reality by the Captain calling to his men to open the nuke's access chamber to its detonation timer.

"How much time do we got left?" The Captain asked.

"We have 27 minutes!" Called another soldier.

"Let's get this thing down!" The Captain said.


	19. Chapter 17 - Clash of the Titans

**Chapter 17 - Clash Of The Titans**

_Date: April 19, 2014_

—

_((I must apologize to my loyal readers for these continued messages, but there is no other way for me to communicate with guest members on this site as they have no account and thus no inbox with which for me to speak to them privately. I know I could just ignore them, but some of the comments they are leaving are so bad that I feel obligated to respond. So unfortunately, here's one more mini-rant aimed at a particularly stupid comment which a guest tried to leave on the last chapter:_

_In Chapter 16 I left a message just like this one in which I destroyed another rather poorly constructed comment from a guest which stated that Godzilla "humiliated" the male MUTO___i_n all of their engagements__. My counter to this poorly constructed statement about the MUTO's "humiliation" at Godzilla's hands was summed in the following paragraph. __**Pay attention**__ to the language I used:_

"_During the airport scene if one watches the tv, the male is __**jumping all over Godzilla**__ the entire time they're on screen and the only thing Godzilla does that's productive is bite his leg. That's it. The rest of the time he's flailing __**trying to get the MUTO off of him**__. During the fight after the female went down post Godzilla's first atomic breath, the male was __**again jumping all over Godzilla and avoiding his attacks for most of the fight**__ until Godzilla finally took him down with the tail swing."_

_In chapter 16's comments, a guest left a comment which essentially said the following (I deleted the comment and only remember the main message, so I'm paraphrasing here): "Godzilla' may be a lot stronger, but that doesn't mean anything against the MUTO's agility. He didn't dominate the MUTO because the MUTO kept dodging his attacks as he was a lot faster than Godzilla."_

… _In short this guest tried telling me that Godzilla's strength was not a factor and that he didn't humiliate the MUTO because the MUTO was more agile. __If you actually know how to pay attention, that is exactly what I summed up in the quoted paragraph above__. So this genius of a guest tried arguing with me using a point I already made. Speaking very, very frankly, comments don't get much more ignorant or pathetic than that. Need I say more? I can you know._

_I said it before and I'll say it again everyone, __**learning to pay attention to detail is a beautiful skill**__. Learn to master it sooner rather than later, otherwise you'll end up like this twit of a guest who tried arguing with me about a point I had already made. Godzilla did __**not**__ "humiliate" the MUTO in all of their fights. Guest one, eliminated. Godzilla wasn't able to humiliate the MUTO because of the MUTO's agility, and yes, I said it first which guest two would have known if they knew how to pay attention. Guest two, eliminated._

_Thank you for playing!_

_And now on with the chapter for my other loyal readers. You guys do, after all, deserve not to have to endure these tiring back and forth messages! This will be the last such message. I promise. I will be ignoring and deleting all guest comments from here on out.))_

—

Cars flew left and right and were crushed underfoot as the female MUTO was shoved backwards by Gojira's overwhelming physical might. At 90,000 tons in weight, Gojira's weight alone was enough to push the female back without any resistance, but it helped that his massive bulk was mostly muscle. Gojira's advance was relentless despite the female's attempts to grasp at buildings to slow/stop herself from being pushed back. Finally, as they passed a pair of small skyscrapers, Gojira pushed forward harder and caused the female to trip and fall onto her back with tremendous force.

The female's body tumbled down and ripped through concrete and steel as she brought down the skyscraper she had been grasping at. Her head struck the ground and broke through the slim covering that shielded the underground shelter Elle Brody and hundreds of other desperate citizens were hiding in. Elle pushed her way back away from the female's position, shielding her ears from the magnitude of her cries and Gojira's echoing just beyond.

The female looked up at Gojira as he walked forward a few steps, placing one of his massive feet on her chest to pin her down. She struggled against him, but a single secondary stomp kept her down and sent a shockwave through the ground shaking the people hiding within the shelter and causing them to fall all over one another. Gojira began taking a deep breath, charging some kind of an attack before the male suddenly reentered the fray. Grasping at Gojira's dorsal spines with one arm and slamming the other into his side, he knocked the breath Gojira just took from his lungs and pulled him off balance for over one hundred meters until Gojira finally slammed a foot into the ground to stabilize himself against the male's meager strength.

As he snapped at the male with his jaws, the nimble creature avoided the bite and returned it with one of his own. HIs jaws clamped down on Gojira's nose, crunching through the first layer of scales but failing to pierce the lower layers. Gojira's eyes met the MUTO's and he snarled as he clamped his lower jaw down on the male's own. Dragging the male around in a half circle, Gojira threw the male away just as the fame charged his position and knocked Gojira into another building. Falling to the ground, Gojira shook the Earth causing another tremendous shockwave. The building debris fell down onto Gojira's collapsed form as the female backed away to distance herself from her mighty opponent. The male flew back around as well, having recovered from being tossed like a doll and perched himself on a building rooftop watching as Gojira struggled against the weight of the debris for an instant.

Before long, Gojira broke free, throwing the debris off of his back and side and pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. As he did so, the female charged again. She rammed her head into the side of Gojira's shoulder, knocking him flat to the ground once more as the male jumped off of his rooftop and raised his long forearms above his head. An instant later he slammed the sharp claws down into Gojira's side, and the result was favorable. The scales on Gojira's side were less densely packed together as those on his chest, neck, and back, and as a result the sharp tip of the MUTO's claws dug into flesh beneath the scales causing small amounts of blood to emerge from Gojira's body. The mighty behemoth howled in pain as the MUTO jumped away, climbing up onto yet another building and turning around to observe his opponent as Gojira struggled to right himself.

The female watched like a hawk, waiting for Gojira to reach a quadrupedal posture once more before repeating her previous method of keeping him down. She rammed into his side with her head again, and again he went down. Her mate jumped into the air, prepared his claws, and once against slammed them down into Gojira's side removing scales and digging into flesh. Blood seeped from the wounds as Gojira struggled to gain his footing against the pair, but it was no use. Every time he tried to stand, they'd knock him down and drill his flesh with their claws. He needed a new tactic, and he found one after his third failed attempt.

As he moved to right himself, the female charged him again. But this time, rather than try to continue his course, Gojira collapsed his left arm allowing his body to roll sightly and fall to the ground. The female's momentum carried her forward, unable to stop, as she skidded forward and fell on top of Gojira. Using his right hand, Gojira grabbed the female's front right claw and rolled over onto his back, pulling her with him as he continue to roll all the way around. His spines along his back bent under his weight, which was painful, but thankfully they were just flexible enough to withstand the roll's short duration as he continued to roll all the way pulling the female under his body. With her underneath him and Gojira on his stomach, he now had more room to press his feet against the ground and push himself into a standing posture as the female squirmed beneath him.

With the female pinned, the male leaped forward in a desperate attempt to free his mate, but Gojira had planned for it. As the male came forward, Gojira ducked his head and pulled the female's claw up above him, slamming the male's head into his mate's claw and cutting into his forehead sending him sprawling to the ground in pain. Gojira let go of the female's claw and stomped on her chest, knocking the wind from her as he walked off a short distance.

Gojira knelt forward, a heavy breath escaping his mouth as he slowly turned around to face his two opponents once more.

The female made it to her feet, growling at Gojira as he growled and snarled back at her. The male managed to scramble up onto another building and flared his wings in aggression and warning, trying to intimidate Gojira into backing down and leaving. A wasted effort. Gojira had no intention of backing down. Not now. These things were a threat to his existence, and he was not going to let that fact go unchallenged. Either the MUTO's died, or he died. And Gojira had no intention of dying.

He let out a bellowing roar as the MUTO's prepped themselves for his charge. Gojira began ambling forward at a healthy clip, hastening his steps to his maximum speed as he charged the female MUTO. She latched onto a building with her right for claw and used it to pull herself out of the way of his attack. He saw it happening, but his body was too big and too slow to react in time. Her left fore claw came around and whacked him alongside the head, causing him to lose his balance and stumble to the ground shaking the Earth beneath him and causing the buildings in his immediate proximity to crumble to the ground around and on top of him.

The female looked to the male, grumbling and grunting at him for an instant before he took to the sky. The female looked back to Gojira's crumpled form, watching intently as he seemed to be unconscious for the time being. She took this opportunity to begin heading back towards her nest to check on her young, but before she could take more than a few steps her feet were swept out from underneath her by Gojira's tail. He was wide awake, and had been playing possum to lure her into a false sense of security. She went down, hard, and Gojira's tail rose into the air and slammed down on top of her stomach as she let out a wail of pain.

Gojira pushed himself up through the debris, but as he came to a standing posture he felt two jagged objects dig into his back just off to the side of his spines on either side. The male had taken flight a good distance out and dove in like a hawk dives on its prey, throwing Gojira forward and to the ground as his claws dug into scales and flesh. Small spurts of blood came from Gojira's back where the claws had dug in, and the male pulled them free and slammed them down into the same spots, causing more blood to appear and Gojira released a shriek of pain. He rolled to the side, but the male managed to hop up into the air and flutter just out of arms reach as he flapped his wings violently to propel himself back and away from Gojira as he tried to right himself.

The female was up once more, letting out a grunt from being hit in the chest as she eyed her crafty opponent. He was proving more a challenge than she'd been hoping for, but so long as her mate was beside her they couldn't lose. No, they had too much riding on the outcome of this fight. They were the last hope for their species now, and Gojira was standing in the way of their young's future and safety. That, she could not allow.

Gojira made it to his feet, bellowing at the MUTO's as blood dripped down his back. The smell of blood caught the wind, and all three of them knew that this battle was taking a turn against Gojira.

The male MUTO flew back around and soared at Gojira, hoping to again knock him to the ground by flying right into him. But Gojira had other plans. He was tired, he was sore, his back was aching from the puncture wounds, but this fight was far from over. As the MUTO soared down at him Gojira lurched forward and arched his back, putting his spines directly in the MUTO's flight path. Try as he might, he was too close and traveling too fast to avoid the collision. His stomach and smaller inner arms were ravaged by Gojira's jagged spinal plates, and one of his smaller arms was gashed so deeply that it now hung loosely and was completely unusable. The male was overcome by pain and crashed into a building, embedding himself in it and causing it to fall down with him still trapped within.

The female let out a cry of worry, charging forward as Gojira stood up to his full height. She collided with him, but with his tail set against the ground directly behind him and pushing downward she could do nothing to move him as he gripped her shoulders and bit down into the side of her neck, pushing her backwards as he had when they first engaged before the male's interference. Farther and farther, block by block, the female was pushed backwards with Gojira's powerful jaws clamped down and his teeth digging into her flesh. She screamed and jabbed at his body with her claws, but his hide proved impenetrable at all angles despite her best efforts. But nothing good lasts forever. Finally, the female's flailing paid off and she landed a lucky shot to Gojira's neck, cutting into the gills on the left side causing him to let go of her and cry out in pain.

Using her new opening, she lunged forward and bit into Gojira's neck, digging her long fore claws into the ground and using them like pistons to push herself forward and Gojira backwards until she managed to shove him off balance and make him fall back onto his side. With Gojira down, she ran passed him to the wreckage where the male was fighting to free himself. His left inner arm had been completely severed by the falling debris, but otherwise he was still capable of fighting if he could just free himself from the rubble. The fame carefully used her claws to begin digging away at the building, and within moments the male was able to push himself out of the worst of the debris and shake himself off. Blood dripped from his now lost appendage, but he was still air worthy and still in the fight. He turned around and crawled up onto a skyscraper behind him, one too tall for even Gojira to reach him on, and rested for a short while.

The female, meanwhile, turned around as Gojira made it to his feet once again. She was growing tired of this. She had to stop him now, but how? He was too big and too strong to fight head on. The only reason her mate was able to damage him was because of his momentum during flight when he rammed into Gojira at full speed… But wait, that was it!

The female let out a roar of challenge to Gojira, stomping her feet and flailing her claws to antagonize him into attacking her. The challenge worked, and Gojira began to charge. She backed away a few paces, allowing Gojira room to build up to his maximum speed for his charge before she drew her claws back behind her body. As Gojira came within range, she thrust forward with all of her strength, and as Gojira's flesh met her claws the sound of scales and skin splitting echoed through the air. Her claws dug deep into his upper chest and lower stomach respectively, with Gojira's own momentum carrying him further along and forcing the claws deeper until finally he was able to stop himself by digging his right foot into the ground and pushing backwards.

The female wrenched her claws free of Gojira's body, with blood now pouring like rivers from his wounds as he backed away roaring and crying out in great pain. The blood dripped from her claws, and she was excited that she finally gained an upper hand against him. Her mate could rest easier now that she was beginning to take command of the fight. Just a little longer now. Just a few more shots like that and Gojira would have to either give up or perish. She was in no mood to continue, but he was leaving her no choice. Continue she must, for the sake of her young and her species.

—

Gojira's roars of pain echoed out across the city as he fell to the ground, shaking the Earth and piercing the air and the hearts of the humans as they fought to exit the female's nest and get the warhead to the docks and onto a boat out of the city before it detonated. They still had about 25 minutes left, which was going to be tight. Even with the nuke having been used to feed the MUTO's young, it was still an incredibly dangerous device capable of wiping out the city in the blink of an eye. Minimum safe distance for a nuke was roughly twelve miles, but if they couldn't get it to the docks soon then there was no way they'd be able to make that distance.

Ford shoved a piece of debris out of their way, shouting "Move it out guys!" as they carried the nuke by and to the exit at last. Just a short climb uphill and they'd be free and clear to the docks with the monsters fighting elsewhere.

Ford took that moment to look back at the MUTO's eggs as the glowed and wriggled on the walls and ceilings of the nest. He looked back to his comrades as they called for him, and then back to the nest. Finally, Ford approached one of the eggs. The infant inside turned its head and seemed to look at him, and at that moment he returned its gaze with a frown and turned towards a half buried gasoline truck.

—

Gojira was down, crying in pain as both MUTO's had since gathered around him and began stabbing him in the sides with their claws over and over and over again. The male jumped into the air, slamming his claws down and digging in deeper with the female working to keep Gojira down as he fought desperately to get them off of him using his tail, feet, and arms as best he could.

Ford kicked the lever of the gas truck's lid, bashing it with the butt of his gun to begin releasing the vast amounts of gasoline stored within. The moment he saw the liquid pouring out, he made a break for the exit. The seconds passed like minutes to Ford as he scrambled out of the nest, and as he reached the edge and the promise of level ground the nest exploded behind him, sending him flying into the air and falling to the ground, hard, with Ford landing on his left arm. The fires erupted into the night and the sound caught the immediate attention of the female who let out a cry of worry and left Gojira and her mate as she rushed back to her nest.

The male noticed her departure, giving Gojira one final jab for good measure before taking to the sky after the female. She approached the nest worriedly, using her large arms to support herself as she lowered her head to take a look inside. Within, what she saw horrified her. Her eggs were all charred and destroyed, all of her young dead and buried beneath the rubble of what was once her nest. She let out several wails of agony and mourning, looking back into the nest hoping that it was nothing but a bad dream. A momentary lapse of concentration that showed her a destroyed nest and that the real nest was still alright. But it was for naught.

Then, a sound caught her ears. The sound of rubble falling off a structure. She looked up and saw Ford backed against a fallen building, and as she leaned in to take a look she guessed that he was responsible for the destruction of her nest. He smelled of fire and looked it as well. That's it, he must have done this to her babies. She growled, snarling at him as he looked on helplessly while she leaned in closer and closer.

Then, a bright blue light began illuminating the night sky around them. Ford's eyes trailed over, and as the female looked in that same direction all she saw was blue light emitting from some kind of long, thin object. As the light came into focus through the haze, she saw that it was Gojira's tail. The small spines along his tail were alight, a strange sound coming forth as the lights traveled farther and farther up his back with Gojira slowly standing up to full height. She growled, wondering why he persisted and what he could possibly be up to with this little display. But as he took in a deep breath, she lunged forward and instantly regretted her actions.

Gojira's mouth shot open, and from within his throat erupted a stream of concentrated blue radioactive fire. The stream's central beam was small and focused and proceeded forth with deadly speed and precision. Despite its small size, it packed an ungodly amount of force which immediately threw the female back and off balance into the building behind her. She avoided going to the ground, but just barely. As she attempted to renew her attack, Gojira unleashed on her once more, this time throwing her to the ground with greater force and intent then before. Her chest and stomach burned and smoldered, smoking after Gojira's attack with the wind knocked from her lungs, and her head left swimming from the force of the impact.

Gojira loomed over her, and as he stepped forward the male once again had been using this time of distraction to fly out to a distance and charge Gojira. His long arms swung around, digging into Gojira's chest from the back and throwing him forward, but he caught his balance and turned on the male. Gojira roared in challenge, chasing the male to a nearby building rooftop and swiped his right claw at him. However the nimble creature managed to leap up into the air and avoid the strike before bearing down on Gojira again, leaping and clawing at his back and sides as Gojira fought to get the annoying creature off of him.

—

Back in the streets, the soldiers ran as fast as their legs could carry them to the docks where they boarded the first vessel they could find. After loading the nuke onto the boat, they hot-wired the engine, managing to start it despite the mild interference from the MUTO's. At this distance, it seemed that it was okay. That or their physical state of being and concentration affected how well their EMP nature worked. Either way, the boat was beginning to fire up, but the sound echoed through the streets and found its way to the ears of the female MUTO.

She was burned, she was exhausted, but she could sense the nuclear warhead in the direction of the sound and if she was to successfully breed in the future after making a new nest, she'd need that nuke. She forced herself to her feet, her arms shaking in weakness after being hit so hard by Gojira's attack as she tried to rise. Once she made it to her feet, she pushed off of the ground and lunged forward, trudging through the streets at a healthy clip while the soldiers frantically fought to get the boat moving before she could make it to their position. However, with as fast as she was tearing through the city streets, there was little hope that they'd be able to escape her now.

—

Back in the city, Gojira faced down the male MUTO as he soared about through the skyscrapers which were still standing. There weren't many left to speak of compared to how many there were before. Still, they were enough to prevent Gojira from being able to directly engage his opponent even though he was within reach of Gojira's tail had he chosen to use it as a weapon as he had before. The MUTO's call echoed through the air, bouncing off the buildings and reverberating through the surrounding area as Gojira stood firm keeping his eye on the flying parasite.

Finally, the MUTO banked hard and dove at Gojira. Given their proximity, it was too late for Gojira to dodge the blow which came his way. The two front claws were outstretched and slammed into both GOjira's chest and his back, clamping onto one of his dorsal spines. The claw dug into the scales and Gojira roared in pain and fury as the MUTO continued to dig his claws in deeper and deeper. Finally, the hooked claw managed to punch a hole clean through the base of one of Gojira's larger spines. Blood, scales, and bone shards flew off of Gojira's back to the ground, red liquid oozing down his back as he screeched in pain.

The MUTO had it in mind to rip his claw back, taking the spinal plate completely off if he could, but Gojira blocked out the pain just long enough to clamp down on the MUTO's shoulder with his jaws, causing it to recoil back instinctively and in pain. With the claws free and clear, Gojira reached forward with his arms and latched onto the MUTO's right wing and left front claw. With the MUTO in hand, Gojira began to tighten his grip on the MUTO's wing until at last he felt that sensation of blood and flesh beginning to fill his mouth. The MUTO flailed its other limbs violently in a desperate attempt to make Gojira release him, but it was to no avail. Gojira's jaws remained firm, clamping harder and harder until he had returned the favor.

His teeth clamped together, his lips feeling each other's touch as the horrendous "CRUNCH" of bone, blood, and flesh of the MUTO's wing being torn from its body. Gojira pushed the MUTO back, who fell to the ground on his back missing a large mouth shaped piece of his right wing. He scrambled to his feet as Gojira spat out the chunk of flesh, but Gojira was not finished. As the MUTO reached another skyscraper and began to try and clamber up to the top, Gojira took a deep breath. His chest puffed up, and once again the dorsal spines along his back lit the sky around him. The dorsal plate which had been punctured leaked small amounts of light and flickered blood out in small bursts, but otherwise Gojira was unfazed.

The MUTO made it halfway up the skyscraper, and through Gojira's jaws leaked waves of blue and white energy. He threw his head forward and opened his jaws, and from his mouth exploded another stream of concentrated radiation. The beam slammed into the center of the MUTO's back, pinning its body against the building causing the building to crack and tremble under the force of the oncoming attack. Within moments, the MUTO's body began to char and smoke, but Gojira didn't let up. As the attack reached a peak, the flesh and armor of the MUTO failed and the beam punctured its back entering its body. From the MUTO's mouth erupted a fountain of strange reddish-purple blood and its body twitched and spasmed until the beam's blue light began shining from underneath it.

Through the back side of the building the beam escaped, having blasted a hole clean through the MUTO and Gojira finally relaxed himself and stopped his attack. He watched as the MUTO's life faded from its crimson red glowing eyes and both it and the building came down. The MUTO was buried under a mountain of rubble with Gojira standing triumphant over his foe. He was breathing hard, bleeding from several places, missing a small chunk of one of his dorsal plate's near the base, but he was still alive. That was more than could be said of the male MUTO, the more annoying and arguably the more dangerous of the two.

—

Ford limped through the streets as fast as he could. After sort of recovering from the explosion of the nest, Ford was desperate to make it back to his comrades and get the nuke out of here. Sam and Elle were all that mattered to him now, and they were everything which he had to lose. If he didn't see that nuke get on a boat and leave the city with his own eyes, he would never forgive himself for the consequences, however short his existence may be from here on out.

As he reached the base of hill and rounded a corner heading for the docks, he was stopped in his tracks by the tremendous and thundering crash of something massive hitting the ground nearby. In fact it was so near that a large blast of wind nearly knocked him off of his feet, but he managed to stay upright long enough to turn his head and see that Gojira had collapsed in agony and exhaustion. The mighty behemoth's eyes were closed, his breathing labored and a wheezing sound coming through with every rise and fall of his chest, and blood dripping from multiple wounds both large and small across his body.

For a brief moment, Ford felt sorry for the fallen monster. Gojira was just a monster, a freak of nature, yet there was something about him which was tugging at Ford's heart.

The monster's eyes fluttered open weakly and the two locked eyes. Ford didn't know what was going on in Gojira's head, but he could see the pain as clear as day and in that respect they were sharing that pain together. Gojira's existence was on the line, as was Ford's. The only difference between the two was that Ford had everything to lose. A wife, a son, and his entire race. Gojira was just Gojira, and had nothing to lose, but despite that the brief moment of connection was all Ford needed to know that Gojira deserved his sympathy.

—

Gojira's massive form hit the ground, his legs unable to sustain his weight any longer after watching the male MUTO fall beneath the collapsing building. Ever fiber of his body was aching, and it was all he could do just to keep breathing. His eyes opened weakly, and he looked down as a tiny creature similar to those on the giant orange bridge stood watching him. The two locked eyes, and Gojira's mind began swimming with questions.

What exactly was this thing? Why were there so many of them? What were these giant square stones they created which the MUTO's had used to great effect against him? What were those things in the ocean which spit fire and launched tiny explosive rocks at him? Was this particular creature responsible for all of that? No, how could it be? It was alone, just like he was. Whatever this tiny creature was before him, it was in pain the same as he was and that meant that it deserved his sympathy.

Gojira's eyes slowly closed, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

—

As Gojira's eyes closed, Ford turned and continued down the streets to the docks. As he came upon the scene he heard the sounds of gunfire going off as the female approached the boat which had the warhead loaded up already. She knelt down to try and pick it up in her jaws, but an RPG round struck her on the side of the head. He turned and saw his comrades firing at her with all they had, trying to keep her away from the boat and its dangerous cargo. Ford limped forward as fast as he could and made his way to the boat, glancing back momentarily and seeing her massive jaws come down on a good chunk of the dock nearby and taking a few of the other soldiers with her. She rose, still being shot at, and Ford continued on his way.

The chaos in the background didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was getting the nuke out of here. He fired up the boat's engine and tried to found a GPS device which one of the soldier's had attached and hot wired into the boat's navigation system, overriding its previous destination in favor of the open ocean for disposal of the nuke. Ford hit the auto-pilot button and grabbed a nearby pole to help push the boat off the dock and out to sea. It took most of his remaining strength to get the boat away from the pier, but once it was in the water it began moving out away from shore. Ford tossed the pole aside and collapsed to his knees, sitting back against the Captain's little cabin area as he breathed in hard.

The boat grumbled and trudged on, but then abruptly shut itself down. The power died, and all Ford could hear was the sound of something large approaching him from the water.

… _Shit_. He thought.

He opened his eyes and looked up, locking eyes with the female MUTO as she loomed over him ominously. Kneeling down closer and closer, she opened her mouth and roared at him. The sound hurt his ears, but he was too tired to even lift his hands to protect them. His head swam from the sound, and as his eyes came back into focus he managed to find the strength to pull out his side arm and aim it right at the female in between her giant glowing red eyes. It was not going to do anything, but at least he'd die fighting.

_I'm sorry Elle, Sam. I couldn't keep my promise to you._ He thought.

The female's jaw flexed and her saliva dripped as she prepared for her meal, but she suddenly arched her neck as a "CRUNCH" sound reverberated through the area. Ford looked up and saw that Gojira had managed to come up behind her and clamped his jaws down on her beck. Using his hands on her shoulders Gojira then hauled the female backwards, pushing her head down as he grabbed hold of her jaws and pried them open. If her outer hide was too tough, there was only one option left.

The female clawed violently at Gojira as the sound and light of his blue fire breath began to overtake her. Brighter and brighter, and all at once everything stood still as Gojira let loose down the female's throat. Her body almost instantly went limp as the heat from the breath began to singe and sear her nervous system at the base of her skull and killed her on the spot. Even as she was already dead in his hands, he continued to hold fast to her jaws and let loose with his breath down her throat until at last it burned through the back of her neck and severed her head from her shoulders. Her body fell limp into the water at his feet, and he turned his head to the skies and roared in triumph.

Ford, by this point, was already completely collapsed and lying down on the boat in exhaustion watching everything unfold. A small smile crept onto his lips as his eyes closed, the image of Gojira roaring proudly in his victory being engraved in his mind's eye. The boat came back to life, and once again the engine continued its duties and the boat its course through the bay out to sea. The sound of Gojira trudging to shore was all Ford heard for a moment before a thundering rumble signified the collapse of the monstrous leviathan. Ford's eyes slid open, and he saw Gojira laying down on his stomach and entirely unmoving. Ford rolled onto his back and stared up at the stars, the smile still on his lips.

_About time that bitch was put down… Nice work Gojira._ He thought.

The last thing Ford remembered after that was being lifted into a helicopter and seeing a flash of light so brilliant that he had to close his eyes and be turned away by the men who rescued him so he wouldn't go blind from the sight. After that, everything went dark and Ford lost consciousness.


	20. Chapter 18 - King of the Monsters

**Chapter 18 - The King Of The Monsters**

_Date: April 20, 2014_

—

_((My sincerest apologies for the LONG wait regarding this chapter to close out this fanfic retelling of "Godzilla (2014)". School has been a bitch and a half, as well as work and a few personal life changes recently having been made. But I'm back in action and have time to write again, so I will be back on track with all my stories and hopefully might even finish one of them before the Summer is through. Happy reading guys, and I hope you enjoy!))_

The dawn brought a most unwelcome sight to the people of San Francisco. Everywhere one looked, there was chaos and destruction. Hardly a single building remained in tact, being partially or completely crushed by debris or burned from the sea of flames which had overtaken the city in the wake of the monster's battle. Skyscrapers were torn in two or non-existent. What used to be rural areas were now barren wastelands of rock and asphalt. And what was once downtown San Francisco was nothing but a pile of ash and rubble.

It was their worst nightmare come to life. Hundreds of billions of dollars in damage done in a single night, caused by three of the most horrific creatures ever to walk the Earth.

It was a lot to take in for the good people of this city, and almost as big of a blow to the rest of the world which observed the aftermath of the carnage on a globally broadcast news station.

"_In less than the span of twelve hours, three giant monsters turned the city of San Francisco, California into a pile of smoldering ash. Officials have estimated that over twenty thousand lost their lives, with an estimated sixty to seventy thousands injured or missing amongst the city's ruins. The reports of these numbers remain approximations, and are constantly being updated. More on this and other news regarding the monster's nightmarish struggle as it develops…"_

_Struggle is one word for it,_ Ford thought to himself as he held his son Sam close to his chest.

Sam himself was traumatized, and hardly speaking. Having witnessed the monster known as Gojira, or _Godzilla_ according to news and other military personnel, up close, he was having trouble maintaining his grip on what to think. His mother had been his rock up until now. Having spent most of his time with her, without her here it was that much harder. He could barely even pronounce the names of these creatures, and in one day they had destroyed his home, separated him from his parents for what seemed an eternity, and caused the world to turn upside down.

Ford continued to watch the news and shake his head as speculation about what happened circulated among the announcers and reporters. Some wondering if the monsters were aliens. No such luck there. The fact that these monsters were home grown made them that much more terrifying. Others were wondering if this was God bringing down his divine justice. Not a chance. If this was God's work, it wouldn't have been an isolated incident. All of humanity would have paid the price. No, this was all just bad luck as far as Ford was concerned. These monsters were innocent of prejudice, and did only what they were instinctually programmed to do. He understood it, but he didn't have to like it.

Minutes ticked by, and Ford watched the entrance with Sam for signs of Elle who had yet to return to them.

Meanwhile, outside, rescue efforts were underway. The fire department, national guard, US Marines, Navy, and Air Force were all present and accounted for in the effort.

Doctors Serizawa and Graham were not far from the fallen form of Gojira. He was lying under a pile of rubble brought about by a building of medium height, approximately 20 stories, falling on him in the wake of the force of the nuclear warhead exploding out at sea. No breathing. No sounds of a pulse. Noting. Both doctors feared the worst had come for the proud creature. The military had placed hazard signs and a makeshift fence around Gojira's body in the wee hours of the morning to prevent people from getting too close. But many people were within a stone's throw of him regardless. And that was exactly what they were doing.

Dozens of citizens, angry and shaken, were throwing rocks at the body of Gojira screaming obscenities and slandering him for destroying their home. Others still chanted that he deserved to die for what he had done. All the destruction, all of the death, all of it and for what? So he could kill two other giant creatures who were less of a threat to them and their world than he was. The doctors observed the citizens behavior and though they were appalled, they could not judge them.

Outside of the military and the staff of MONARCH, nobody knew that Gojira just wanted to destroy the MUTOs and that he didn't actually wish to destroy everything in his path. The only thing the world knew about Gojira was that he was a giant monster who was more than capable of bringing death and destruction on a level unseen since the atomic bombs themselves. Facts fueled the fire as well, and there was no defending against them: Gojira's appearance in Hawaii killed thousands with the tsunami upon his approach. His tromp through the Golden Gate Bridge killed a couple hundred. And his fight in San Francisco killed thousands who were trapped within "shelters" and who had either refused to evacuate, or simply had not been able to evacuate in time.

To the people of the world, he was just a monster and a bringer of death. Not a single individual in the world, save perhaps doctors Serizawa and Graham, actually knew that he was not a direct or deliberate threat to the human race.

Back inside the shelter, Ford and Sam sat quietly as they waited for Elle to return to them. Sam's eyes were glued to the entrance, and Ford's were scanning the crowds making occasional returns to the entryway. Minute after minute ticked by, with other families being reunited and leaving together after seeking medical evaluation. It lowered Ford and Sam's spirits, until another familiar face caught Ford's attention.

"Sam. Do me a favor buddy. I need you to go over to the gentleman in the wheelchair and give him a big hug. Can you do that for me?"

Sam merely shook his head.

"Hey, come on buddy. Do it for me okay?"

Sam finally looked up at Ford.

"Why?"

"Because he's your grandfather," Ford replied.

Sam looked at Joe, wheelchair bound with a neck brace, but very much alive. It took a moment for Sam to gather his courage and leave Ford's arms, but he was finally coerced into doing so. It only took a moment for Joe to spot Ford and his grandson, and he smiled lovingly at them as he wheeled himself over. Ford pushed himself to his feet, using his crutches to balance himself as he started toward his father. Joe's eyes welled with tears at seeing his now five year old grandson for the first time in who knew how long, and as Sam reached him Joe pulled him into a warm and tender embrace.

"You've gotten so big and strong…" He said, fighting to speak through his tears.

Joe kissed Sam's head a few times, stroking his hair and marveling at how his grandson resembled his father. Ford made it to him, and with Sam still in his arms Joe reached out to Ford and gave his son a hug. It was a moment which Ford didn't think would come, seeing his father alive after all he'd been through. Whether or not he'd made it out alive from the airport in Hawaii had been unknown until now. But here he was, after all of this. All that was needed now was…

(HUFF)…

Gojira's nose ejected a torrent of air and dust, his enormous body stirring sending hundreds of angry and now panicked citizens running for their lives. Doctors Serizawa and Graham were amazed at the fact that he suddenly began breathing again after all of this time. What amazing will could bring a creature like this back to life so suddenly? It was just one more mystery to solve for a later time as Gojira's eyes slowly slid open. His pupils dilated in response to the light, and scanned the area before returning to a neutral position within their sockets. Serizawa couldn't help but let a small smile find its way to his lips as he observed Gojira stirring and trembling as he attempted to make his body work.

Back inside the shelter, at long last the moment the boys had all been waiting for had arrived. Out of the dark gloom of the shelter entrance emerged a young woman with blonde hair. Her blue eyes were somewhat glassy, a sign of her mental and physical exhaustion. She was dirty, walked with a slight limp, but there she was. Elle had finally made it.

Sam broke free of his grandfather's arms and sprinted over to Elle.

"Mommy!" He yelled.

Elle's glassy eyes looked up very slowly.

"Sam?" She whispered.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Sam yelled again.

Elle's eyes cleared, her eye welled with tears, and despite her limp she began running to her precious child.

"Sammy!" She cried!

Kneeling down against the pain in her leg, Elle embraced her beloved son and bawled uncontrollably. She almost collapsed due to exhaustion and relief, and was kept up only by her son's own determination to stand on his feet. Ford and Joe both struggled to reach her as fast as their crippled forms could take them, but as they made it they both found a way to reach out and hug Elle.

The entire family was finally together once more, safe and sound after all of this chaos had nearly broken them down to their core.

It took several minutes, but Elle's crying finally came under control as she wiped her tears away and started doing what a panicked mother would do. She asked Sam a million questions a million miles an hour about whether or not he was okay. Was he injured? Where was he injured? Was he still frightened? Did he need anything? It took a moment to dawn on her that her husband and father-in-law were both there, and by the time she did she had already returned there embrace, kissing both numerous times as they all shed silent tears together for their reunion.

"It's still alive!" Came the horrified shout of one citizen who had entered the shelter.

All around them the people began to panic, looking to the live coverage screens as Gojira had finally managed to make it to his knees. He was not yet on his feet, but he was on his way.

"What do we do?!" Elle asked in a panic.

But Joe and Ford were both as calm as could be, looking around almost angrily as they then shared a look of understanding and returned their gaze to Elle.

"Joe? Ford?" She asked.

"It's all right Elle. We're going to be just fine," Ford assured her.

"How do you know?!" She demanded.

"Elle, trust us. Though it may seem impossible, believe us when we say that creature is not a threat to us. Not so long as we respect his space," Joe affirmed.

"How can you say that after what happened last night?" She asked.

Ford put a hand on her cheek, calming her down.

"Elle, the fact that we're alive is because of him." Ford said gently.

"_Him_?" She asked.

"Gojira," Joe replied.

"His name is Gojira." Joe continued.

Elle shook her head, unable to comprehend how they were so calm.

"Believe me Elle, it took a while for me to get it too. But Gojira is not our enemy. Not so long as we give him his space. Doctor Serizawa, a man dad and I have met and worked with, has confirmed that Gojira only acts out of instinct and necessity for his own survival. He's not trying to threaten the human race. He's just an animal doing what he has to in order to survive, the same as us when you think about it."

Elle was still a bit overwhelmed, but she took a few long, deep breaths to calm herself down. She trusted her husband, and she both trusted and admired her father-in-law. If they said that this Gojira creature was not a threat, she would believe them. Still, she picked up Sam in her arms as they all walked outside together.

Panic was all around them. The military had mobilized all available troops in the area to evacuate the citizens on the ground and begin opening fire with all available weapons ready vehicles and munitions devices such as mortars on Gojira as he struggled to stand. A few fighter jets who happened to be in the area responded to the order, opening gunfire on Gorjia along his back and neck as he pushed himself off his knees and to his feet. He was still hunched forward, debris and dust falling off him like waterfalls as he straightened himself out. It was a long, painful, tedious process to stand up straight after all that had happened to him, but he made it at last. Upright and exhausted, Gojira stood there for a moment catching his breath as the jets returned opening fire with their sidewinder missiles. The missiles impacted his body, but he didn't even flinch. He barely noticed what was for him but a tiny "pop" as they struck his densely armored hide.

Ford chanced to look about, and caught sight of Serizawa and Graham.

"Doctor Serizawa!" He called.

Both Serizawa and Graham looked to him, and were both visibly happy and relieved that Ford and Joe had survived the incident. The two jogged over to the family, shaking hands and giving hugs as Gojira released a roar which brought them back to reality. Gojira was now on the move, despite the efforts of the military who pelted him with missiles, mortars, and tank fire, he ignored all of it. He was too tired and wanted nothing more to do with the tiny specs which shot these little pellets of metal at him. He wanted to return to the sea, where he could rest and recuperate.

All around them, citizens were screaming and shouting for the military to kill the creature. Chanting and ranting and raving for its destruction all around. Serizawa and Graham led the Brody family away to a more quiet street where they could observe Gojira's return to the sea mostly unimpeded by the chaos of San Francisco's surviving populace.

"Dad, where is he going?" Sam asked.

"He's going back to the ocean buddy," Ford replied.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Because that's where he belongs, Sam. It's his true home," Joe replied.

Sam seemed content, and rested his head against his mother's shoulder as she held him and started to nod off to sleep. It had been a long time since he'd gotten any real rest after all.

As they watched, the military continued their efforts in vain to stop and destroy him. Once, and only once, Gojira turned his head and snarled at the tanks and jets as they flew by him, but otherwise continued on his course.

"Where do you think he'll go doctors?" Joe asked.

"He will likely return to the Pacific, and remain there until the next time something like this happens." Serizawa replied.

"Do you really think something like this could happen again?" Ford asked.

"It's uncertain, but given that Gojira exists and the fact that the MUTO's exist, I'd say there's a high probability that others are out there somewhere waiting to awaken." Graham responded.

"I suppose the best question in this scenario would be: Do you believe he will do this to help us, or will he just help himself?" Joe asked, almost directly to Serizawa although it was technically an open question to anyone.

"Nature has an order. A power to restore balance. But nature herself is impartial. Uncaring of our feelings in the matter," Serizawa began.

"Mother nature will defend herself by any means necessary from whatever threatens her stability. We believe that Gojira is her instrument of choice," Graham added.

"In the end, nature always wins. Even after we are all dead and gone, she and Gojira will still be here… Forever ready and waiting to challenge what imbalance may bring." Serizawa concluded.

Ford only nodded, content with their answer though he still wished it was a bit more of a black and white answer. Joe, on the other hand, smiled warmly as he returned his gaze to Gojira who was now fading in the distance as he made it to the docks.

"Whatever happens in the future, I wish you the best of luck Gojira." Joe said quietly.

Gojira reached the water, wading in knee deep as he released one final roar to the skies to finalize his supremacy. The MUTO's were defeated. The human military had finally given up their attack. And he was free to return home. He waded out further and leaned forward into the water before swimming away at an even clip. His spines cut through the water like a row of shark fins before he slowly and smoothly disappeared beneath the ocean's waves.

Ford put a hand on his father's shoulder, and wrapped the other around Elle's shoulders as she rested her head on his with a smile.

"On behalf of a rather ignorant and ungrateful human race, we thank you… Gojira," Ford concluded.


End file.
